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Iran has released the crew of a seized Portuguese-flagged ship linked to Israel but remains in control of the vessel itself, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards seized the container ship MSC Aries, with a crew of 25, in the Strait of Hormuz on April 13, days after Tehran vowed to retaliate for a suspected Israeli strike on its consulate in Damascus. Iran had said it could close the crucial shipping route.
"The seized ship, which turned off its radar in Iran's territorial waters and jeopardized the security of navigation, is under judicial detention," Amirabdollahian said, according to a foreign ministry post on X late Thursday night.
He said that the release of the crew was a humanitarian act and that they could return to their countries along with the ship's captain.
Iran's foreign ministry had earlier said that the Aries was seized for "violating maritime laws" and that there was no doubt it was linked to Israel.
MSC leases the Aries from Gortal Shipping, an affiliate of Zodiac Maritime, which is partly owned by Israeli businessman Eyal Ofer.
Recent attacks on merchant shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden by Yemen's Iran-allied Houthis, claiming solidarity with Palestinians during Israel's war on Gaza, have affected global shipping.
Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.