Two Greek-flagged tankers seized by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in the Middle East Gulf on 27 May were ordered to sail to Bandar Abbas on Sunday.

With their Iraqi oil cargo still on board, the 150,000-dwt Prudent Warrior (built 2017) and 157,400-dwt Delta Poseidon (built 2011) will travel on their own steam and steered by their own crew.

All seafarers are in good health and are treated well by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, which swooped in on helicopters to board the two vessels as they were sailing in international waters off Iran’s coast on Friday.

Crew members were rounded up on the bridge at the time, had their cell phones forcibly removed from them and remained incommunicado for hours.

Over the weekend, however, cell phones were returned and seafarers were allowed to get in touch with relatives and their management companies back home.

“We’re in regular contact with the master,” one manager at Polembros Shipping, the owner of the Prudent Warrior, told TradeWinds.

Twenty-three seafarers are on board that ship — 15 Filipinos, seven Greeks and one Cypriot citizen.

Delta Tankers’-controlled Delta Poseidon has 21 Filipino and two Greek seafarers on board.

Stuck in the middle

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), the Iranian regime's elite military organisation, formally claimed responsibility for the attacks.

According to managers of the two Greek companies, Iranian authorities have given no formal justification for intercepting the ships on Friday, other than to say they are carrying out a normal inspection to check the ships’ papers and their condition.

Port state control officers boarded the Prudent Warrior on Saturday.

“They behaved very kindly while carrying out the inspection, they didn’t find anything, “ the Polembros manager said.

Iranian authorities have made no attempt to meddle with the two ships' cargo so far.

Greek state broadcaster ERT, however, reported late on Sunday that the Iranians are ordering the vessels to sail to Bandar Abbas to impound their oil there.

The Delta Poseidon is carrying crude from Basra, Iraq to the Motor Oil refinery in Greece. The Prudent Warrior’s Iraqi cargo was en route to Fujairah, after which it would head on to another, yet undetermined destination in the West.

Greek authorities have vehemently protested the Iranian seizures, describing them as “an effective act of piracy” and calling for the immediate release of the ships and their crews.

Greece’s foreign ministry issued a travel warning for all the country's citizens to Iran. Furthermore, it warned the government in Tehran that its move will have “particularly negative consequences” on Iran's relations with the entire European Union (EU), of which Greece is a member.

Iran itself accused Greek authorities of piracy on 26 May, when they allowed the transfer to the US of an Iranian oil cargo that was on board the Iranian-flagged 115,400-dwt aframax Lana (built 2013). The ship had suffered engine failure in Greek waters in April, when it was still flying the flag of Russia.

The seizure of the two Greek-flagged tankers on Friday is generally understood as a reprisal for Greek meddling with the Lana. The Lana's cargo is to be carried to the US on Dynacom Tankers' 70,400-dwt Ice Energy (built 2006).

Greek government officials, meanwhile, deny any responsibility for what happened with the Lana. The ship's cargo was seized on an order by a local Greek court and Greek justice is independent of the government, a senior government minister said in Athens on Saturday.

In a statement issued later on Sunday, Greek shipping minister Yiannis Plakiotakis said he and the foreign ministry were undertaking “every effort” to secure the release of the crews and the ships.

Such assurances, however, are small comfort for the vessel's owners and the seafarers' relatives.

“The whole issue is 100% percent political and they just got stuck in the middle,” one of them said.