News - Middle East: A report in the Iranian media shows Greek-flagged tankers seized by Iran’s elite military force the IRGC on Friday were carrying around 1.8 million barrels of crude or products.

The semi-official Fars news agency, which is close to the IRGC, said in a Saturday report that the two ships seized in the Persian Gulf over maritime violations have each a capacity of carrying 150,000 metric tons of cargo.

The report identified one of the tankers as Delta Poseidon and said it had loaded a crude cargo in the Iraqi port of Basra for delivery to a Greek refinery before it was stopped by Iranian forces off the southern port of Asaluyeh.

Delta Poseidon is operated by Delta Ships, a major international shipping company based in Greece.

The Fars report said another Greek tanker, identified as Prudent Warrior, is a 5-year-old ship which IRGC forces seized near the Iranian island of Faror on Friday over violations of maritime laws.

Data on shipping websites MarineTraffic showed that the ship had departed from Qatar’s Ras Laffan on May 22 and was heading to a port in the United Arab Emirates.

IRGC’s seizure of the Greek ships came two days after Greek authorities allowed the United States to confiscate a cargo of Iranian crude that had been seized off a Greek island last month.

The Iranian-flagged shipped that had Russian crews onboard had initially been seized off Greece over violations of European Union sanctions against Russia.

However, the US Justice Department informed Greek authorities on Thursday that it will confiscate the cargo of 700,000 barrels of Iranian crude. The cargo was then sent to the US on a tanker hired by Washington from a Greek shipping company, reports said.

Source: Press TV