The United States officially condemned on Thursday the seizure of the oil tanker St. Nicholas by Iran in the Gulf of Oman.

National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications, John Kirby, voiced the US government's disapproval during a White House press briefing even though the United States had literally done the exact same thing to Iran earlier.

Iran's Tasnim news agency had reported earlier in the day that Iranian naval forces had detained the oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman under a court order. According to the agency, the seizure was a legal response to what Iran perceived as the "theft" of Iranian oil by the U.S. government.

Kirby stated unequivocally, "We condemn this apparent seizure. The Iranian government should immediately release the ship and its crew."

The vessel, operated by the Greek shipping company Empire Navigation, had been sailing under the name Suez Rajan before becoming embroiled in a protracted legal dispute.

The St. Nicholas, previously known as the Suez Rajan, was at the center of a long-standing disagreement that culminated in the US Justice Department seizing its cargo of 1 million barrels of Iranian crude oil.

Iran's perspective, as reported by Tasnim, asserts that the seizure of St. Nicholas was a lawful response to the US government's theft of Iranian oil.

The tanker had initially been carrying Iranian crude oil under its former name, Suez Rajan, before being illegally captured by the US under the pretext of violating US unilateral sanctions.

Iran's navy confiscated an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman waters following "a court order" authorizing the move, state media reported on Thursday.

"The Navy of the Islamic Republic of Iran captured an American oil tanker in the waters of the Gulf of Oman, in accordance with a court order," the official IRNA news agency said.

Earlier today, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said it received information about an incident in the Gulf of Oman. The report indicated that four to five armed individuals, dressed in military-style black uniforms with black masks, boarded a vessel approximately 50 nautical miles off the city of Sohar in Oman around 03:30 GMT.

According to UKMTO, a security officer reported hearing "unknown voices" over the phone, including the captain's voice. Subsequently, the vessel altered its course toward Iranian territorial waters, and communication with it was lost.

UKMTO WARNING 006/JAN/2024 UPDATE 003https://t.co/6a9TLpaLrg#MaritimeSecurity #MarSec pic.twitter.com/qbF6AuP33f

— United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) (@UK_MTO) January 11, 2024

Last April, the United States seized the Iranian oil tanker Suez Rajan, anchoring it off the coast of Texas. This occurred before the tanker MR Euphrates sailing under the Liberian flag, transferred the cargo from the Iranian ship. The value of the shipment was estimated at around 56 million dollars, as ordered by the US authorities.

In response to the US move, the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps, Brigadier General Ali Fadavi, said at the time, in a press statement in the city of Qazvin, west of Tehran, that if the Americans decided to empty an oil tanker carrying a shipment of Iranian oil held in America, "one of the country’s policies, since the victory of the Islamic Revolution, so far, has been to respond based on the principle of reciprocity, which is a well-established policy that no one can prevent."