US ‘engaging in piracy’ as Tehran defends tanker seizures: Iran Judiciary
Iran’s Judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangiri has sharply criticized the US over Washington’s “piracy activities,” stressing that Iran’s seizures of US-linked tankers in the Strait of Hormuz and across the Persian Gulf are carried out under clear domestic and international legal authority.
In a statement posted on social media Thursday, Jahangiri said Iranian naval forces have acted “fully in accordance with domestic and international law,” insisting that the seizures are based on “firm and definitive” rulings issued by competent Iranian courts after due legal process.
He said documentation of violations committed by the tankers “will be sent to the American side,” adding that US military forces, particularly the United States Central Command, “constantly violate international law through piracy across the Persian Gulf.”
Jahangiri noted that US President Donald Trump has “openly confessed to acts of piracy,” referring to his recent remarks in which he boasted about blockading Iranian ports and seizing Iranian vessels.
Citing the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, Jahangiri said coastal states are legally permitted to seize ships that violate regulations within their territorial waters or on the high seas.
By contrast, he said, the so-called US naval blockade of Iran “clearly contradicts the United Nations Charter, international humanitarian law, and international criminal law.”
“The Washington regime has mocked universal rights and legal norms,” he said, adding that the continued silence of the United Nations undermines its ability to play a meaningful role in global governance. He urged the international community to “stand against the United States’ arrogant unilateralism.”
Jahangiri said the US, alongside Israel, failed to achieve its objectives during the current war on Iran, stating that Iranian armed forces are confronting American forces in the Persian Gulf “with power and authority.”
He noted that although Trump extended a truce unilaterally after its expiration, he also imposed an inhumane naval blockade.
Now entering its fourth week, the blockade is widely viewed by Iranian officials as a war crime and one that has triggered broader global economic disruption.
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