News / Politics

Iran’s IRGC seizes trespassing Saudi vessel in Persian Gulf

Saturday, 22 July 2017 1:37 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 22 July 2017 1:44 PM ]

File photo shows Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps' speedboats cruising during military maneuvers in the Persian Gulf.

The Navy of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has seized a Saudi vessel after it trespassed on the country’s territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, an official with the Fisheries Organization of Bushehr Province says.

Ardeshir Yarahmadi said on Saturday that the Saudi vessel, with five Indians on board, was seized near the Farsi port in the waters off the southern Iranian province of Bushehr on Friday.

He added that all of the vessel’s crew members were detained and handed over to judicial officials of the province.

The official noted that this was the second Saudi vessel captured this month for trespassing on Iranian territorial waters.

On July 7, the IRGC Navy seized a trespassing Saudi vessel, which had set off from the Saudi port of Dareen, in the waters off Bushehr Province.

Last month, the Iranian Interior Ministry’s director general for border affairs, Majid Aqa-Babaei, said that Saudi Arabia’s coastguard had opened fire on Iranian fishing boats in the waters south of Iran and killed a fisherman.

The incident happened after two Iranian boats fishing in the Persian Gulf strayed from their course due to big sea waves, Aqa-Babaei said on June 17.

Relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia worsened after a deadly human crush during Hajj rituals in Mina, near Mecca, in September 2015.

Iranian officials blamed the incompetence of Saudi officials for the incident, which, according to Iran, killed 4,700 people, including 465 Iranian nationals.

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