Pakistan confirmed on Monday that it will repatriate the 22 crew members of an Iranian vessel seized by US naval forces, describing the handover as a \u201cconfidence-building measure\u201d amid escalating tensions in the Strait of Hormuz. Islamabad \u201cwelcomes such confidence-building measures and will continue to facilitate dialogue and diplomacy while pursuing ongoing mediation efforts for regional peace and security,\u201d the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The ministry added that the Iranian vessel will be moved to Pakistani territorial waters for \u201cnecessary repairs\u201d before being returned to its owners.<\/p>\n
Seizure and transfer<\/p>\n
US Central Command (CENTCOM) said Sunday that US forces had transferred the 22 crew members from the M\/V Touska to Pakistan for repatriation. US naval forces seized the vessel on April 19 in the Gulf of Oman after it reportedly failed to comply with a US naval blockade imposed on Iranian ports. Six additional passengers had already been transferred to another regional country for repatriation last week, according to CENTCOM spokesperson Capt. Tim Hawkins. \u201cThese returns are being coordinated with the support of both the Iranian and US sides,\u201d the Pakistani ministry added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pakistan confirmed on Monday that it will repatriate the 22 crew members of an Iranian vessel seized by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[34,650,69,153,1220],"class_list":{"0":"post-96808","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tehran","8":"tag-iran","9":"tag-pakistan","10":"tag-tehran","11":"tag-us","12":"tag-vessel"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116515496523074320","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}