Isna News

Russia announced on Thursday its navy would stage a sweeping set of exercises involving all its fleets this month and next from the Pacific to the Atlantic, the latest show of strength in a surge of military activity during a standoff with the West.The drills will take place in the seas directly adjacent to Russia and also feature maneuvers in the Mediterranean, the North Sea, the Sea of Okhotsk, the northeast Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific, it said.They will draw on 140 warships and support vessels…

The body of one of seven missing crew members of a capsized Iranian transport vessel was found in the Gulf waters on Monday, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported.The agency quoted a local maritime official as saying that the search was continuing for the remaining six crew members, whose vessel capsized on Friday near the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf.The crew members included six Iranians and one Indian. (Reuters)

Iran said on Wednesday it was against any act that threatened maritime safety and trade, two days after a fuel transport ship was attacked near the Saudi port of Jeddah."Iran rejects any act of sabotage against maritime safety and security and the freedom of international trade" ISNA news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh as saying when asked about the attack.(Reporting by Dubai newsroom; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

The Iranian navy will maintain regular missions in the Gulf, the ISNA news agency reported on Wednesday, a day after the United States warned mariners there to stay away from U.S. warships.“The naval units of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman will continue their regular missions in accordance with professional principles as in the past,” ISNA quoted an unnamed military official as saying.The U.S. warning to mariners followed U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat last month to fire on any Iranian ships that harass U.S. Navy vessels.The Bahrain-based U.S.

One Iranian warship accidentally struck another with a missile during an exercise, killing 19 sailors and wounding 15 others, Iran's navy said on Monday.The incident took place during training in the Gulf of Oman, a sensitive waterway that connects to the Strait of Hormuz through which about a fifth of the world’s oil passes. Iran regularly conducts exercises in the area.The frigate Jamaran fired at a training target released by a support ship, the Konarak. However, the support ship stayed too close to the target and was hit…

Iran's coast guard seized a vessel for allegedly smuggling fuel in the Gulf and detained its 12 crew members from the Philippines, the semi-official news agency ISNA reported.The vessel was carrying nearly 284,000 liters of diesel, the news agency said on Saturday.Iran, which has some of the world's cheapest fuel prices due to heavy state subsidies and the fall of its currency, has been fighting rampant fuel smuggling by land to neighboring countries and by sea to Gulf Arab states.It has frequently seized boats it says are being used for smuggling oil in the Gulf.(Reuters reporting by Dubai newsroom; Editing by Alexander Smith)

Iran will free seven crew members of the detained British-flagged tanker Stena Impero, Iranian state television reported on Wednesday, although the vessel's owner said it had yet to receive any official confirmation of the release date.The Swedish-owned Stena Impero was detained by Iran's Revolutionary Guards on July 19 in the Strait of Hormuz waterway for alleged marine violations, two weeks after Britain detained an Iranian tanker off the territory of Gibraltar. That vessel was released in August.Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi told the TV that the seven, who include Indian citizens, were allowed to leave the tanker on humanitarian grounds and could leave Iran soon."We have no problem with the crew and the captain and the issue is violations that the vessel committed…

An Iranian tanker sailed through the Mediterranean towards Greece on Monday after it was released from detention off Gibraltar, and Tehran said that any at U.S. move to seize the vessel again would have "heavy consequences".The Grace 1, renamed the Adrian Darya 1, left anchorage off Gibraltar about 11 p.m. (2100 GMT) on Sunday. Refinitiv ship tracking data showed on Monday that the vessel was heading to Kalamata in Greece and was scheduled to arrive next Sunday at 0000 GMT.The seizure of the tanker by British Royal Marines near Gibraltar in July 4 on suspicion it was carrying oil to Syria in violation of European Union sanctions led to a weeks-long stand-off between Tehran and the West.

Iran was to revive maritime security talks on Tuesday with traditional foe the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in an apparent bid to calm tensions in the Gulf, although a Gulf official described the discussions as routine and technical.The talks follow weeks of heightened political friction around the strategic waterway stemming from hostility between between Tehran and Washington, the main Western ally of Gulf Arab states long wary of the Islamic Republic.The discussions had been off since 2013…

Iran has seized a foreign tanker smuggling fuel in the Gulf, state television quoted Iran's Revolutionary Guards as saying on Thursday."A foreign vessel smuggling one million litres of fuel in the Larak Island of the Persian Gulf has been seized," the station said, adding that the ship was seized on Sunday.The Revolutionary Guards said the impounded vessel - which Iranian authorities have not yet named - was the same one it towed after it sent a distress call."The vessel that Iran towed to its waters after receiving a distress call, was later seized with the order from the court as we found out that it was smuggling fuel," the Guards said in a statement quoted by state television.The Guards said they had seized no other ship in the Gulf.Iranian navy vessels came to the assistance of a disa

Saudi Arabia said on Monday that two of its oil tankers were among those attacked off the coast of the United Arab Emirates and said it was an attempt to undermine the security of crude supplies amid tensions between the United States and Iran.The UAE said on Sunday that four commercial vessels were sabotaged near Fujairah emirate, one of the world's largest bunkering hubs lying just outside the Strait of Hormuz, but did not describe the nature of the attack or say who was behind it.The UAE had not given the nationalities or other details about the ownership of the four vessels. Riyadh has identified two of them as Saudi and a Norwegian company has said it owned another.

Iran says ready to respond, but U.S. aircraft carrier no threatIran is ready to respond to any hostile U.S. action, but it does not consider the arrival of a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Gulf last week a significant threat, an Iranian navy commander said on Monday.The USS John C. Stennis entered the Gulf on Friday, ending a long absence of U.S. aircraft carriers in the region as tensions rise between Tehran and Washington."The presence of this warship is insignificant to us,"…

Iran said on Monday it was ready to respond to any hostile U.S. action, but it did not consider the arrival of a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Gulf last week as a significant threat.The USS John C. Stennis entered the Gulf on Friday, ending a long absence of U.S. aircraft carriers in the region as tensions rise between Tehran and Washington."The presence of this warship is insignificant to us," Iran's Navy commander Habibollah Sayyari was quoted as saying by the semi-official ISNA news agency."We will not allow this warship to come near our territorial waters in the Persian Gulf," he added.Sayyari said the U.S. navy was allowed to sail in international waters near Iran, just as the Iranian navy could sail in the Atlantic Ocean near U.S.

Iran's armed forces will protect Iranian oil tankers against any threats, an Iranian military official said on Monday after the United States called the ships a "floating liability" and warned ports operators not to allow them to dock.The United States resumed sanctions on Iran's oil, shipping and banking industries last Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of a 2015 international agreement curbing Iran's nuclear programme in May."Iran's armed forces...are prepared…

The bodies of three of the crew of the Sanchi, the tanker involved in the worst oil ship disaster in decades off the coast of China, have been identified, the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) reported Saturday. The three crew members identified are Milad Aravi, Majid Naqian and Mohammad Kavousi, the agency reported. The semi-official Fars news agency said that the three were Iranian. The Iranian government is trying to get the bodies of the three crew members back to Iran, according to ISNA.

The maritime authorities of China, Panama, Iran and Hong Kong on Thursday signed an agreement to jointly investigate a collision in the East China Sea that caused the worst oil ship disaster in decades, according to China's Ministry of Transport. Investigation work will be organised by a joint team composed of representatives of all four signatories to the agreement, a brief statement from the ministry said. The Panama-registered Sanchi tanker (IMO:9356608), run by Iran's top oil shipping operator, collided on Jan. 6 with the CF Crystal (IMO:9497050) about 160 nautical miles off the coast of China near Shanghai and the mouth of the Yangtze River Delta. The Sanchi, which was sailing from Iran to South Korea, carrying 136,000 tonnes of condensate, an ultra light crude, sank on Jan.

The black boxes for the tanker Sanchi and the freighter CF Crystal, the two vessels that collided in the worst oil ship disaster in decades, have been opened, the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) reported on Wednesday. Officials from China, Iran, and Panama were present when the black boxes were opened, Hadi Haqshenas, maritime affairs deputy at Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization, was quoted as saying by ISNA. The report did not say where that happened. “Clarifying the ultimate results of the deciphering process takes time and it could take months,” Haqshenas said, according to ISNA. The Sanchi, run by Iran’s top oil shipping operator, collided with the CF Crystal about 160 nautical miles off the coast of China near Shanghai and the mouth of the Yangtze River Delta on Jan.

Fire rages for 4th day; tanker collided with freight ship on Saturday. Rescue crews were forced to retreat from a stricken Iranian oil tanker in the East China Sea on Wednesday following an explosion on the ship as a fire raged for a fourth day after a dramatic collision. The blast happened on board the tanker in the afternoon after rescue crews were dousing the ship with foam in an attempt to put out the fire, China's Transport Ministry (MOT) said in a statement on Wednesday. The cause and damage to the tanker from the incident were not clear. The ship was carrying condensate, a highly flammable ultra-light crude, to deliver to South Korea when it collided with a Chinese freight ship on Saturday.

Oil prices fell 4 percent on Tuesday after Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi ruled out any production cuts, restating the kingdom's rationale for maintaining output was that demand would pick up excess crude that has crushed prices over the past 20 months. Big oil exporters Saudi Arabia and Russia have proposed to freeze output at January levels, which were near record highs, only if other producers also do the same. More meetings on the potential freezes will be held in March, al-Naimi told the IHS CERAweek conference in Houston, adding that he expects most of the countries that count to freeze crude production levels. Analysts remain skeptical that the cuts will be effective in rebalancing the market.

Iran will allow the United Nations to inspect an aid shipment to Yemen, the ISNA agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian as saying on Wednesday. "We have decided to dock our ship in Djibouti so the United Nations inspection protocol can take place," Abdollahian was quoted as saying by ISNA. Reporting by Sam Wilkin

The second and third Iranian-made cargo vessels will be launched at the port of Khorramshahr today, the Persian service of ISNA reported. Constructed at the Arvandan Shipbuilding Complex through the efforts of Iranian engineers, the multi-purpose craft are capable of hauling 800 tons in the form of containers or in bulk. The design and manufacture of the ships required over 85,000 man-hours of labor. It took 14 months to complete the project, which followed international standards. The vessels are 49.3 meters long, 11.6 meters wide, and 12.34 meters in height, with a waterline of 2.7 meters. The Arvandan Shipbuilding Complex is also constructing a pool and dry dock to launch and repair vessels up to 70 by 20 meters at the port of Khorramshahr.

Body of crew member found on board; casualty might be worst tanker oil spill since 1991 and concerns grow that tanker may explode, sink. Rescue crews wrestled to bring a blaze on an Iranian oil tanker off China's east coast under control on Monday as fire raged for a second day following a collision with a grain ship, while the body of one of the 32 missing crew members was found on aboard. Concerns were growing that the tanker, which hit a freight ship on Saturday night in the East China Sea and burst into flames, may explode and sink, the official China Central Television (CCTV) said on Monday, citing experts on the rescue team. Poor weather continued to hamper the rescue work, Lu Kang, a spokesman at China's foreign ministry, told a regular news briefing.

The body of one crew member has been found aboard an Iranian oil tanker that is still ablaze after colliding with a grain ship off China's east coast, an Iranian official said on Monday.   Mohammad Rastad, head of Iran's Ports and Maritime Organisation, was quoted as saying by ISNA news agency that the body was sent to Shanghai for identification.   Rescue crews are trying to bring the blaze under control and find the 32 missing crew.   Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin