In a statement on Thursday night, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei condemned the US Navy’s military action against a commercial vessel carrying Venezuelan oil near the South American country’s shores, calling its capture a clear example of “state maritime piracy.”
The spokesperson stressed that the US’ move to seize and confiscate commercial vessels belonging to other countries represents an explicit disregard for international law and a blatant violation of principles governing the security and safety of international navigation.
Baqaei underlined that invoking US domestic laws and Washington’s unlawful sanctions to justify such conduct can in no way alter the illegal and criminal nature of this “armed robbery at sea.”
Warning against the consequences and repercussions of continuing such coercive behavior for international peace, security, and trade, the Iranian spokesperson emphasized that all governments and competent international bodies bear responsibility for opposing such unlawful actions and holding the US accountable.
The US forces seized an oil tanker near the Venezuelan coastline on Wednesday.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said the US Coast Guard, the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations executed a seizure warrant for a crude oil tanker used to transport oil from Venezuela and Iran in defiance of sanctions.
Earlier Wednesday, US President Donald Trump described the vessel as “very large” and the “largest one ever seized, actually.”
The ship is named Skipper. It was sanctioned in 2022 under an earlier name, the Panamanian-flagged Adisa. The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control referred to the ownership at the time as Triton Navigation in the Marshall Islands.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday that the US intends to take all the oil contained in the tanker.
The Venezuelan government has called the tanker's seizure "a blatant robbery and an act of international piracy." Venezuela has the largest known oil reserves in the world, and oil exports are the government’s main source of revenue.