Maritime satellite tracking data on Wednesday appeared to show a Vietnamese-flagged vessel that had been seized by Iranian soldiers, at anchor in international waters.

The Sothys crude oil tanker was stormed by Iranian soldiers on October 24 in the Gulf of Oman.

Iranian state media said the Revolutionary Guard had released the tanker by court order "after it was emptied of oil belonging to the Islamic Republic of Iran." 

The tanker looks to have moved away from a position near Iran's Bandar Abbas port and was situated in the centre of the busy shipping channel.

A spokesperson for Iran's UN mission told news agency AP: "Sothys left Iranian waters last night after transferring the oil."

Iran oil smuggling suspicions

New York based advocacy group United Against a Nuclear Iran has been tracking the vessels movements. According to the organization, the Sotheys received oil from another oil tanker called the Oman Pride in June.

The US treasury has in turn identified the Oman Pride, a Liberian flagged vessel, as being part of a Iranian oil smuggling operation, with the oil being sold in East Asia.

US sanctions have hit Iran’s oil industry hard, since the abandonment of the nuclear deal in 2018 by the Trump administration.

The region has seen a string of incidents involving including a fatal drone attack on a vessel with links to Israel. Iran has denied involvement in these incidents.

kb/rt (AP, Reuters)