An image from Iranian State TV of Revolutionary Guards aboard a Vietnamese oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman, October 21

UPDATE, NOV 10:

Iran’s officials have released a Vietnamese oil tanker detained by Revolutionary Guards, while keeping $50 million of cargo.

Tanker trackers said the Sothys Bandar Abbas port in southern Iran and reached the Gulf of Oman, where it was seized on October 24, by early Wednesday.

Shahrokh Nazemi, a spokesperson for Iran’s mission to the United Nations, said Wednesday that “Sothys left Iranian waters last night after transferring the oil”.

United Against a Nuclear Iran, a New York-based advocacy group opposed to the Islamic Republic, claimed in an October 11 letter that satellite photos showed the Sothys receiving a ship-to-ship transfer of oil in June from the tanker Oman Pride.

The US Treasury said in August that the Oman Pride transports Iranian oil as part of smuggling for the Revolutionary Guards’ Qods Force, which sells the cargo in east Asia.

Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards, boasted about the seizure of the Sothys on Wednesday, telling his forces, “By creating this great epic, you have exposed the declining empire and the dying terrorist regime of the United States in its attempt to humiliate us.”

UPDATE, NOV 8:/h1> An Iranian Government official has denied a report claiming that Vietnam summoned the Iranian Ambassador over the seizure of a Vietnamese oil tanker by the Revolutionary Guards in late October.

The official insisted that there was “no summoning at all”, and said the ambassador was invited to the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry for discussions.

Last week, the Revolutionary Guards tried to claim that it had protected the Vietnamese tanker Sothys from interception by US forces in the Gulf of Oman. The Guards declared that the Americans were trying to move Iranian oil to a second tanker.

But Vietnamese officials undercut the story by saying that they were in talks with the Iranians for the release of the tanker, captain, and 26 crew.

Dr. Seyed Mohammad Marandi of Tehran University, a de facto spokesman for the Iranian leadership, retracted his Twitter statement that the US had tried to seize Iran’s oil shipment bound for Venezuela. He insisted, “The complete story will be explained soon.”

ORIGINAL ENTRY, NOV 4: The Pentagon says Iran’s officials are lying about the interception of US warships in the Gulf of Oman, covering up their seizure of a Vietnamese oil tanker.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards declared on Wednesday that they had thwarted a US attempt to seize the tanker and transfer its oil to another vessel.

With the timely and authoritative action of the Guards naval forces, the US terrorist Navy’s operation to steal Iranian oil in the Sea of Oman failed.

The tanker carrying Iran’s oil docked at the port of Bandar Abbas [in southern Iran] on October 25.

State media built up the claim throughout the day, culminating in the proclamation of a video showing the Guards’ operation.

“I’ve seen the Iranian claims, they are absolutely totally false and untrue….It’s a bogus claim,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters. “The only seizing that was done was by Iran,” Kirby said.

US officials said Iranian forces seized a Vietnamese-flagged oil tanker last month, and American naval forces were monitoring the situation.

Iranian media said the tanker was “Sothys”, corresponding to the name of a Vietnam-flagged vessel. The footage on State TV showed the red tanker surrounded by about 10 speedboats, with audio of a purported encounter between Iranian and US forces.

Announcers declared that the Guards “carried out a heliborne operation on the detained tanker’s deck, gained control of the vessel, and directed it back toward Iran’s territorial waters”. They added that two US warships had followed, but had been unable to take the tanker back.

Dr Seyed Mohammad Marandi, a de facto spokesman for Iranian officials, put out an even more dramatic claim: