Iran’s foreign minister declared on 27 April that the crew members of a seized Portuguese-flagged vessel with connections to Israel have received consular access and are predicted to be released.

On 13 April, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized MSC Aries, comprising a crew of 25, in the Strait of Hormuz, days after Tehran pledged to retaliate for a suspected strike by Israel on the consulate in Damascus.

Iran said that it could be closing the crucial shipping path.

Latest attacks on merchant shipping in the waters of the Red Sea as well as the Gulf of Aden by the Houthis, asserting to show solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza during Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas, have impacted global shipping.

Hossein Amirabdollahian, Iran’s Foreign Minister, informed Paulo Rangel, his Portuguese counterpart, over a telephone call that the humanitarian problem of releasing the ship’s crew members is of grave concern to them.

He was quoted as saying that the crew members would be turned over to the ambassadors based in Tehran.

However, there is no clarity on when this would take place.

The Iranian foreign ministry has mentioned that the MSC Aries was seized because it violated maritime laws, and there wasn’t any doubt it was associated with Israel.

MSC leases the Aries from Gortal Shipping, which is Zodiac Maritime’s affiliate and partly owned by Eyal Ofer, an Israeli businessman.

Earlier on Thursday, the Ministry of External Affairs’ spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal stated that some technicalities are involved in the return of the remaining 16 crew members of India.

During a weekly media briefing, Jaiswal informed that the 16 Indians were in good health, and the Indian mission received consular access to the crew by Iran’s authorities.

Indian officials have spoken with the crew who are in constant communication with their loved ones, he said, adding that as far as their return is concerned, there are some procedures, and certain contractual obligations that are involved and once everything is done, it will depend on that, when the crew will return.

Reference: Reuters