Philippines Affirms Iran frees Filipino Crew of Seized Oil Tanker

The Greek-owned St. Nikolas oil tanker seized by Iran
The Greek-owned St. Nikolas oil tanker seized by Iran
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Philippines Affirms Iran frees Filipino Crew of Seized Oil Tanker

The Greek-owned St. Nikolas oil tanker seized by Iran
The Greek-owned St. Nikolas oil tanker seized by Iran

The Filipino government said on Wednesday that all crew members of the oil tanker that was seized in the Gulf of Oman in January, have returned to the country.

This came while the government seeks to secure the release of other Filipino seafarers held hostage by the Iran-backed Houthis in the Red Sea.

On January 11, Iran’s navy had seized the Greek-owned St. Nikolas off the coast of Oman. It was carrying 18 Filipino crew members and one Greek, against the backdrop of tension between Iran and its arch enemy, the United States.

In Manila, Philippine Foreign Undersecretary Eduardo de Vega said the Greek crew member was released the following week.

Tehran began freeing the Filipino crew in batches at the end of January after a replacement crew was hired from Russia and other countries.

De Vega said the last of the Filipino crew returned to Manila last week.

“They were not hostages... but they were not allowed to leave without replacements,” de Vega said of the Filipino crew.

The Marshall Islands-flagged ship was carrying 145,000 tons of oil from Iraq and heading to Türkiye when it was seized. It has been anchored in the vicinity of the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas.

Iran's state media said the seizure was in retaliation to the “theft” of Iranian oil by the United States from the same tanker, at the time named the Suez Rajan.

-Seamen Captured by Houthis

Manila is still seeking the release of 17 Filipinos taken hostage by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis in November after the rebels seized their ship in the Red Sea.

In a separate incident, two Filipino crew members were killed and three others injured in a Houthi missile attack on their ship in the Gulf of Aden on March 6.

The Houthis began attacking ships in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea last November, a campaign they say is intended to signal solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

De Vega said Manila was “encouraged by the developments such as the UN resolution calling on a ceasefire in Gaza.”

“Hopefully there will be peace in the Middle East and the Houthis will release them (Filipino seamen),” he said.

-Suez Rajan Saga

Attention began focusing on the Suez Rajan in February 2022, when the group United Against Nuclear Iran said it suspected the tanker carried oil from Iran's Khargh Island, its main oil distribution terminal in the Arabian Gulf. Satellite photos and shipping data analyzed at the time supported the allegation.

For months, the ship sat in the South China Sea off the northeast coast of Singapore before suddenly sailing for the Texas coast without explanation.

In September, Empire Navigation pleaded guilty to smuggling sanctioned Iranian crude oil and agreed to pay a $2.4 million fine over a case involving the tanker.

The vessel discharged its cargo to another tanker in August, which released its oil in Houston as part of a Justice Department order.

It was sentenced to three years of corporate probation.

The US Treasury has said Iran’s oil smuggling revenue supports the Quds Force, the expeditionary unit of the Revolutionary Guard that operates across the Mideast.

In the meantime, Iran has seized two tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, including the Advantage Sweet, Suezmax crude tanker that had been chartered by US firm Chevron.

-US Crude Oil Seized by Iran

On March 6, the semi-official Fars news agency reported Iran will unload about $50 million worth of crude from the Advantage Sweet, a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker seized last year.

The unloading of the cargo follows a court order by Iran's judiciary which stated the move is in retaliation to US sanctions preventing the sale of critical medicine for Iranian victims of a rare skin disease.

The United States insists that medicines and humanitarian goods are exempt from sanctions.



US Envoy Witkoff Meets Putin as Trump Tells Moscow to ‘Get Moving’ on Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff (L) during a meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, 11 April 2025. (EPA/ Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik/Kremlin)
Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff (L) during a meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, 11 April 2025. (EPA/ Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik/Kremlin)
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US Envoy Witkoff Meets Putin as Trump Tells Moscow to ‘Get Moving’ on Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff (L) during a meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, 11 April 2025. (EPA/ Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik/Kremlin)
Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff (L) during a meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, 11 April 2025. (EPA/ Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik/Kremlin)

US President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff held talks with President Vladimir Putin on Friday in St. Petersburg about the search for a peace deal on Ukraine as Trump told Russia to "get moving".

Putin was shown on state TV greeting Witkoff in St. Petersburg's presidential library at the start of the negotiations and state news agencies later said the talks lasted more than four hours.

"The theme of the meeting — aspects of a Ukrainian settlement," the Kremlin said in a statement after the meeting concluded.

Witkoff has emerged as a key figure in the on-off rapprochement between Moscow and Washington amid talk on the Russian side of potential joint investments in the Arctic and in Russian rare earth minerals.

The Izvestia news outlet earlier released video of Witkoff leaving a hotel in the city, accompanied by Kirill Dmitriev, Putin's investment envoy.

Dmitriev called the talks on Friday productive, according to Russian state news agency TASS.

However, the talks come at a time when US-Russia dialogue aimed at agreeing a ceasefire ahead of a possible peace deal to end the war in Ukraine appears to have stalled over disagreements around conditions for a full pause in hostilities.

Trump, who has shown signs of losing patience, has spoken of imposing secondary sanctions on countries that buy Russian oil if he feels Moscow is dragging its feet on a Ukrainian deal.

Ukrainian officials have in recent days sent Washington a list of targets it believes Russia has struck in violation of the energy infrastructure ceasefire the two countries agreed to last month, according to two people familiar with the list.

On Friday, Trump said in a post on Truth Social: "Russia has to get moving. Too many people (are) DYING, thousands a week, in a terrible and senseless war - A war that should have never happened, and wouldn't have happened, if I were President!!!"

Putin has said he is ready in principle to agree to a full ceasefire, while emphasizing that crucial implementation details remain unresolved and what he describes as the war's root causes have yet to be addressed.

Specifically, he has said that Ukraine should not join NATO, that the size of its army needs to be limited, and that Russia should get the entirety of the territory of the four Ukrainian regions it claims as its own despite not fully controlling them.

With Moscow controlling just under 20% of Ukraine and Russian forces continuing to advance on the battlefield, the Kremlin believes Russia is in a strong position when it comes to negotiations and that Ukraine should make concessions.

Kyiv says Russia's terms would amount to a capitulation.

TRUMP-PUTIN MEETING?

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin and Witkoff might discuss the possibility of the Russian leader meeting Trump face-to-face.

Putin and Trump have spoken by phone but have yet to meet in person since the US leader returned to the White House in January for a second four-year term.

However, Peskov played down the Witkoff-Putin talks, telling Russian state media before they started that the US envoy's visit would not be "momentous" and no breakthroughs were expected.

He said the meeting would be a chance for Russia to express its concerns. Moscow and Kyiv have repeatedly accused each other of violating a moratorium on striking each other's energy infrastructure.

The meeting, the third this year between Putin and Witkoff, comes at a time when US tensions with Iran and China, both close allies of Moscow, have been heightened by Tehran's nuclear program and a burgeoning trade war with Beijing.

Witkoff, who visited a synagogue in St. Petersburg earlier on Friday, is due in Oman on Saturday for talks with Iran over its nuclear program. Trump has threatened Tehran with military action if it does not agree to a deal. Moscow has repeatedly offered its help in trying to clinch a diplomatic settlement.

US and Russian officials said they had made progress during talks in Istanbul on Thursday towards normalizing the work of their diplomatic missions as they begin to rebuild ties.

A February meeting between Witkoff and Putin culminated with the US envoy flying home with Marc Fogel, an American teacher whom Washington had said was wrongfully detained by Russia.

A Russian-American spa worker Ksenia Karelina, who had been sentenced to 12 years in prison in Russia, was exchanged on Thursday for Arthur Petrov, whom the US had accused of forming a global smuggling ring to transfer sensitive electronics to Russia's military.