Iran seizes Zodiac and MSC linked containership

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy has seized a containership belonging to Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer’s Zodiac Maritime and operated by Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC) near the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday that the Israeli-linked Portuguese-flagged 15,000 teu MSC Aries had been captured and being directed back to Iranian territorial waters. IRGC forces conducted an operation via helicopter to take control of the vessel, state media added.

The vessel departed from a port in the United Arab Emirates and was en route to Nhava Sheva in Mumbai, India.

MSC, which charters the 366-m-long ship from Zodiac affiliate Gortal Shipping, confirmed the incident and that there were 25 crewmembers on board, adding in a statement that it is “working closely with the relevant authorities to ensure their wellbeing, and safe return of the vessel”.

Another Israeli-linked boxship controlled by Idan Ofer’s Eastern Pacific Shipping and operated by French liner CMA CGM was attacked and damaged by a drone in the Indian Ocean in late November, which the US blamed on Iran.

The seizure follows a deadly Israeli attack on Iran’s consulate in Syria in which several IRGC members were killed, including two generals. Iran had warned it could close the Strait of Hormuz and that it would retaliate for the strike on its consulate.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said that the move by Iran was “a pirate operation in violation of international law”.

“I call on the European Union and the free world to immediately declare the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist organisation and to sanction Iran now,” Katz said on X.