Iran is helping a "missing" Iraqi tanker after it suffered a technical problem in the Middle East Gulf, the country's foreign ministry has claimed.
Spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Twitter that Iran had received a distress call from the 1,900-dwt Riah (built 1988).
"According to international regulations... Iranian forces approached it and using a tugboat brought it into Iranian waters for necessary repairs," Mousavi added.
He said further details would be released later.
According to TankerTrackers, the bunker vessel crossed into Iranian waters on 14 July "for the first time as she slowed down."
Manager claims hijack
The small vessel was "hijacked" by Iranian authorities, according to a UAE shipmanager.
A spokesman for Mouj-al-Bahar General Trading told TradeWinds that there had been no contact with the crew for two days.
AIS data is turned off, he added. The last update shows it off Qeshm island in Iran on 13 July.
Shipping databases list the vessel as operated by Prime Tankers of Dubai, but the company told TradeWinds it had no connection to the ship.
Sharjah-based Mouj-al-Bahar said the tanker is Iraqi-owned and bareboat chartered out to a UAE company.
Mouj-al-Bahar described itself as the vessel manager, but with limited access.
It had just been told by the charterer that the vessel had been "hijacked" by Iran, the spokesman told TradeWinds.
US reports had cited intelligence sources as saying the tanker had been forced into Iranian waters by its naval forces over the weekend.
The ship is not owned or operated by the UAE, Bloomberg cited a UAE official as saying.
It does not carry UAE crew either, said Salem Al Zaabi, director of the International Security Cooperation Department at the UAE's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The UAE is monitoring the situation with international partners, he added.
The ship "did not emit a distress call," he said.
Engine failure?
Other sources said the ship had broken down and was towed by Iran, but Mouj-al-Bahar had no information on this.
AP reported that tracking data showed that a UAE tanker travelling through the Strait of Hormuz drifted off into Iranian waters and stopped transmitting its location.
The US Navy’s 5th Fleet declined to immediately comment.
The news comes with tensions high in the region, after Iranian boats approached a BP tanker in the Strait of Hormuz last week.
This was an apparent retaliatory move in response to the UK seizing the 301,000-dwt Ukrainian-owned VLCC Grace 1 (built 1997) in Gibraltar over potential sanctions breaches.
