“The humanitarian issue of releasing the ship’s crew seriously concerns us,” said Hosein Amir Abdolahian during a telephone conversation with Portuguese Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel, according to the official Iranian news agency IRNA on Friday.
Lusa tried to confirm this information with the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, awaiting a response.
The head of Iranian diplomacy said he had provided consular access to the 25 members of the cargo ship’s crew and added that they were expected to be released.
Iran seized the ship linked to Israel at a time when a response was expected from its side to the April 1 attack on the Iranian consulate in Syria, attributed to Tel Aviv, which killed seven members of the Revolutionary Guard, including three generals.
Hours after capturing the container ship, Tehran launched a retaliatory offensive with hundreds of missiles and drones against Israeli territory.
Tehran regularly captures oil tankers and cargo ships in the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf.
On January 11th, another ship was boarded in the Sea of Oman and transferred to Iranian waters.
