Claim: An image shows an Iranian soldier onboard a UAE-operated ship that carried fuel for Israeli warships, after Iranian commandos intercepted it.
Fact: The picture is from February 2021, when Iran conducted joint naval drills with Russia.
The vessel, which was headed to the UAE, was captured by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) recently, over accusations of fuel smuggling, according to news reports. There is no evidence to suggest that it was carrying fuel for Israeli warships.
On 22 July, X user @IranObserver0 posted (archived) the following claim, citing Fars News as its source: “BREAKING Iranian commandos seized a UAE-run vessel carrying marine gas oil for Israeli warships – Fars News.”
A close-up photo, allegedly showing an Iranian soldier on the captured vessel, accompanied the caption of the post.
Oil smuggling in the Persian Gulf and beyond
Years of sanctions by the US on Iran since 1979 have resulted in increased oil smuggling in the Persian Gulf and beyond. Iran has become adept at working around the embargoes and sanctions to smuggle oil that supports its crippling economy. In 2024, Iran made profits of $16 billion over four months through illegal oil trade, according to The Washington Free Beacon.
Companies based in UAE, China, Vietnam, Singapore, and Hong Kong are part of the network supporting this illicit trade from Iran. In 2022, The Washington Post‘s investigation (archived) revealed that “the ships anchor in the Persian Gulf just outside the territorial limits of the United Arab Emirates, and then, individually, small boats carrying smuggled Iranian diesel shift their loads to the waiting vessels.”
While the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has captured vessels linked to oil smuggling-related incidents similar to the one in the claim, allegations about their role in facilitating the illicit fuel trade are not new. Earlier this year, the US imposed “terrorism and sanctions-evasion charges” on the oil-trafficking network that finances the IRGC. The Washington Post also reported on how the IRGC “detains or hijacks vessels when shipping companies seek to smuggle petroleum products without its permission.”
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check conducted a keyword search for the claim. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) captured a UAE-managed vessel in the Persian Gulf which was headed to Sharjah, carrying nearly 1,500 tons of marine gas oil, according to several news articles. Reuters‘ report on the incident added that, “Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ Navy confirmed seizure of the tanker in a statement quoted by Iran’s state news agency, saying ‘the tanker was systematically engaged in fuel smuggling… and was seized in the depths of Bushehr’s coast by judicial order.'”
Fars News, a news agency in Iran managed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, also reported on the incident. However, we did not find news report by Fars News and other credible news outlets which claimed that the vessels were carrying fuel for Israeli warships.
Furthermore, Soch Fact Check found that the accompanying image in the claim is entirely unrelated to the recent capture of the vessel in the Persian Gulf. When we reverse-searched the image of the soldier, the results suggested that the picture appeared on the internet as early as 2021, when Iranian forces conducted a joint naval exercise with Russian soldiers in the Arabian Sea.
Mosaic Magazine shared the image in question with the caption, “A member of the Iranian navy at a military exercise in the Arabian Sea on February 17, 2021.” The publication credited the picture to “Iranian Army/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images.”
A similar version of the image was also included on the Hudson Institute’s page about an online event from 19 December 2023, which explored “The Rise of Russia-Iran Partnership.” Here too, it is credited to the “Iranian Army/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images.”
Taking cues from this, Soch Fact Check conducted another keyword search and also used TinEye to reverse-search the image. The results led to the same image of the Iranian soldier published by Getty Images. According to its description, the image is from February 2021 when the Russian and Iranian soldiers conducted a joint navy drill in the Arabian Sea.
For further verification, Soch Fact Check looked into detailed news reports on the drill, and found that the two-day joint navy drill, termed “Iran-Russia Maritime Security Belt 2021,” was “aimed at boosting security of maritime trade in the region.”
Virality
The X post garnered at least 636,200 views and was liked 25,000 times.
It was also shared on X here, here, and here.
Conclusion: The image does not show an Iranian “commando” onboard a UAE-run vessel that was captured by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) recently. The image in fact, shows a member of the Iranian navy from when Iran and Russia conducted joint military drills in the Arabian Sea in 2021.
Background image in cover photo: Iran Press Agency
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