Greece calls on Iran to release seized tankers, urging other Greek vessels to avoid Iranian waters

Greek shipping minister Ioannis Plakiotakis has urged Greece-flagged vessels to avoid Iranian waters amid heightened tensions between the two countries.

PHOTO: Armoured Islamic Revolution Guards Corps navy forces during last Friday's operation to seize the two Greek tankers. Tasnim News Agency

Plakiotakis’ comments were made to the Financial Times following last Friday’s seizure of two Greek suezmax tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has joined Greece in calling for an immediate release of the two vessels, the Delta Poseidon and the Prudent Warrior. Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) seized the vessels in retaliation for Greece "capturing" the Russia-flagged Lana for carrying sanctioned Iranian crude last month.

The Lana was later towed off the Greek coast on 21 May and forced to seek shelter during bad weather in the Greek port of Karystos, Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organisation said in a letter to the International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) Secretary-General Kitack Lim on Sunday. Iran called on Lim to open a line of communication to Greece with the aim of releasing the Lana.

IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency reported on Friday that more Greek vessels could be seized in Iranian waters.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh has asked for Greece to cooperate to find a way out of the crisis.

“Our ties must not be hampered by deeply shortsighted miscalculations, including highway robbery on the command of a 3rd party,” he tweeted on Saturday.

Khatibzadeh launched a broadside to against US today, calling it “the biggest disrupter of free trade in the world,” Reuters reports. He said it is a shame that Greece takes orders from the US rather than maintaining good relations with Iran.