Iran alleged on Monday, August 28, that the United States had confiscated its oil from a tanker and cautioned that this action would breach a prisoner exchange agreement between the two adversarial nations.
Iran on Monday accused the United States of seizing its oil from a tanker and warned the alleged move violates a prisoner swap deal between the two foes.
The Islamic republic said on August 10 that it had transferred five Americans from jail to house arrest in the first step of the prisoner exchange agreement.
But it linked the deal to what it alleged was the United States’ seizure of an oil tanker that had been sailing off the US coast in April under the Marshall Islands flag.
In response, he said, the foreign ministry had summoned the chargé d’affaires of the Swiss embassy in Tehran, which represents US interests in Iran, to protest the alleged seizure.
The prisoner swap agreement is expected to lead to the unfreezing of $6 billion in Iranian oil revenue that has been held in South Korea under US sanctions.
All the detained Americans involved are of Iranian descent, but Tehran does not recognize dual nationality and has had adversarial relations with Washington since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The five inmates are among at least a dozen Western prisoners held in Iran on various charges.
Khalil Wakim, with AFP
