Iran to free crew of seized Portugal-flagged ship
The Peninsula
Tehran: Iran said Saturday it would release the crew members of a Portuguese flagged ship that its forces seized this month in the Gulf. The Islami...
Tehran: Iran said Saturday it would release the crew members of a Portuguese-flagged ship that its forces seized this month in the Gulf.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps took over the MSC Aries with 25 crew members on board near the Strait of Hormuz on April 13.
Tehran later said the ship belonged to Israel and was being investigated for alleged violations of international maritime law.
"The humanitarian issue of the release of the ship's crew is of great concern to us," Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in a phone call with his Portuguese counterpart Paulo Rangel.
"We have given consular access to their ambassadors in Tehran and announced to the envoys that the crew members will be released and extradition," he was quoted as saying in a statement from his ministry, without elaborating.