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.
