Two oil tankers recently seized by Iran are anchored off the coast of one of its key cities in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, according to satellite photos analyzed by the Associated Press today Sunday.

Photos from Planet Labs PBC show “Advantage Sweet” and “Niovi” located south of Bandar Abbas near a naval base in a port city in Iran’s Hormozgan province on Saturday. Their capture comes amid a heated dispute between Iran and the West over Tehran’s booming nuclear program, although it appears the two vessels may have been captured for different reasons.

Iran seized the Marshall Islands-flagged Advantage Sweet with a crew of 23 Indians and one Russian on April 27 while it was sailing in the Gulf of Oman. Tehran said the ship collided with another vessel, although tracking data from Advantage Sweet showed no deviations along the way.

The Advantage Sweet was carrying crude oil from Kuwait for US energy company Chevron Corp. San Ramon, California, during its hijacking, which came after another tanker believed to be carrying Iranian oil disappeared from its berth off the coast of Singapore a year after it was found to have tried to evade US sanctions.

The Financial Times, as well as the intelligence company Ambrey, reported that the Suez Rajan was hijacked on US orders. US officials and those associated with Suez Rajan did not respond to questions about the tanker’s disappearance while en route to the west.

Satellite imagery shows the second ship, the Niovi, a Panamanian-flagged tanker, was hijacked by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps paramilitaries on Wednesday as it sailed from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, towards the east coast of the UAE. Although it was not carrying cargo, S&P Global Market Intelligence data obtained by AP showed that Niovi received oil from a vessel then known as Oman Pride in July 2020.

The U.S. Treasury Department in August 2021 sanctioned Oman Pride and others associated with the ship for “participation in an international oil smuggling network” that supported the Quds, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards expeditionary unit operating throughout the Middle East.

In addition, alleged emails posted online by Wikiran, a website allegedly leaking documents from the Islamic Republic, suggest that cargo carried by Niovi was sold to companies in China without authorization.

United Against a Nuclear Iran, which monitors Tehran’s crude oil shipments, “strongly suspects that the Niovi seizure is linked to a dispute over a shipment of Iranian oil,” Glen Jungman, the organization’s chief of staff, said. Iran said it confiscated Niovi following a court order in Tehran.

Niovi officials did not return repeated phone calls for comment. The Greek Coast Guard said the Nyovi was carrying sailors from Greece, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.

Hacker attack on Iranian sites

Meanwhile, on Sunday, an online account described as a hacker group claimed responsibility for allegedly taking down websites linked to Iran’s foreign ministry. The claims of the Ghyam Sarnegouni account, whose name means “Long live the coup” in Farsi, were not immediately confirmed by the Iranian media.

However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website was down for several hours due to “scheduled maintenance and updates”.

Cached versions of the websites of Iranian diplomatic services in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, Germany and South Korea were apparently hacked with a message in Farsi that read: “Death to Khamenei, long live Rajavi.” Khamenei is Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Rajavi is most likely Masood Rajavi, the long-missing leader of the Iranian Mujahideen-e-Khalk group, or his wife Maryam, who is now its public face.

“A great revolution is taking place in Iran, the uprising will continue until the demolition of the palace of oppression,” the report said.

Source: Associated Press.