The crew of the ship have been detained in Iran, according to the country’s Foreign Ministry, and it’s reported that UAE have apologised for the incursion
Iranian officials have seized a ship from the UAE which it claims was illegally in its territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. The crew of the ship is currently in detention in Iran, the country’s Foreign Ministry confirmed.
Tehran claimed that on Monday, Emirate coast guards fired shots on several Iranian fisher boats, resulting in two deaths.
The UAE has since apologised and said it is prepared to compensate Iran for the incident.
“On Monday, an Emirati ship was seized by the border guards of Iran and its crew were detained due to illegal traffic in our country’s waters,” state TV quoted the statement as saying.
“On the same day, UAE guards shot dead two Iranian fishermen and seized a boat … the UAE has expressed regret for the incident and in a letter on Wednesday announced its readiness to pay compensation.”
The UAE foreign ministry declined to comment when contacted by international news agency Reuters.
State news agency WAM reported on Monday that the Gulf state’s coastguards had tried to stop eight fishing boats which violated the state’s territorial waters northwest of Sir Bu Nu’Ayr island, without reporting any casualties.
“The UAE authorities … in a note on Wednesday, have expressed their deep regret over the incident and announced their readiness to compensate for all the damage caused,” Iran’s statement said.
Earlier this week it was reported how Iranian ‘ghost ships’, transferring illicit shipments of the country’s heavily sanctioned oil have reappeared on radar systems after months of silence.
At least 80 Iranian crude tankers have been sailing across the globe for the past year as “ghost ships,” a practice of turning off a vessel’s GPS system to hide its movements from international monitors.
This practice is illegal due to the dangers of causing an accident in international waters.
