Iran frees 10 Indian sailors

Iran frees 10 Indian sailors | Daily Tribune

MUMBAI India (AFP) — Ten Indian sailors, detained in Iran in July 2025 on an oil tanker, have been released after “sustained diplomatic engagement,” India’s shipping authorities said late Tuesday.

The sailors on the MV Harbour Phoenix were “detained, arrested and imprisoned in Iran following the vessel’s interception near Jask Port in July 2025,” the Directorate General of Shipping said in a statement.

“The seafarers have now been released and reunited safely,” the shipping authority said.

“Necessary arrangements are being coordinated for the earliest return of the crew members to India.”

New Delhi and Tehran have long-standing diplomatic and energy ties, but India also balances that with close links to the United States and to Israel.

Iranian forces regularly announce the interception of ships it says are illegally transporting fuel in the Gulf.

India has pursued a policy of quiet diplomacy and minimal public comment during negotiations for the release of the sailors.

It did not give further details on the reason for their arrest or about the vessel, which ship tracking sites list as a Palau-flagged oil products tanker.

India has one of the world’s largest merchant navy workforces, with thousands of Indian sailors operating in Gulf shipping lanes.

Iran has restricted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz — which normally carries about one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas shipments — since the United States and Israel launched attacks on 28 February.

India, the world’s third-largest oil buyer, normally sources about half of its crude through the Strait of Hormuz.

Meanwhile, an Iranian Revolutionary Guards official said on Wednesday that renewed war with the US was unlikely but warned that Iran stood ready against any attack.

“The possibility of war is low because of the enemy’s weakness, the armed forces are lying in wait with full magazines,” said Mohammad Akbarzadeh, deputy political chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, was quoted by Tasnim news agency as saying.

“Do not doubt that we will turn the area from Chabahar to Mahshahr into a graveyard for aggressors,” he said, naming places at each end of Iran’s lengthy southern coast.