{"id":6451,"date":"2026-05-04T10:35:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T10:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/05\/04\/crew-of-iranian-ship-seized-by-us-forces-evacuated-to-pakistan-govt-says\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T10:35:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T10:35:21","slug":"crew-of-iranian-ship-seized-by-us-forces-evacuated-to-pakistan-govt-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/05\/04\/crew-of-iranian-ship-seized-by-us-forces-evacuated-to-pakistan-govt-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Crew of Iranian ship seized by US forces evacuated to Pakistan, gov\u2019t says"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>Twenty-two crew members from the seized Iranian ship MV Touska have been transferred to Pakistan for repatriation.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>The crew members of an Iranian ship that was seized by the United States after it \u201cfailed to comply\u201d with the US blockade on Iranian ports have been transferred to Pakistan for repatriation, Pakistan\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a confidence-building measure by the United States of America, twenty-two crew members held aboard the seized Iranian container ship, \u2018MV Touska\u2019, have been evacuated to Pakistan,\u201d the ministry said in a statement on Monday.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 4 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/5\/3\/whats-irans-14-point-proposal-to-end-the-war-and-will-trump-accept-it\">What\u2019s Iran\u2019s 14-point proposal to end the war? And will Trump accept it?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/5\/3\/was-the-iran-war-the-final-blow-in-the-collapse-of-spirit-airlines\">Was the Iran war the final blow in the collapse of Spirit Airlines?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/upfront\/2026\/5\/3\/is-israel-expanding-into-gaza-despite-ceasefire\">Is Israel expanding into Gaza despite ceasefire?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 4 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/newsfeed\/2026\/5\/3\/iran-lawmaker-says-strait-of-hormuz-will-not-return-to-pre\u2011war-state\">Iran lawmaker says Strait of Hormuz will not return to pre\u2011war state<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>The individuals were flown to Pakistan on Sunday night and will be handed over to the Iranian authorities today, the statement read.<\/p>\n<p>The \u2060<a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/liveblog\/2026\/5\/4\/iran-war-live-tehran-says-trumps-hormuz-mission-violates-ceasefire\">US-Israeli war on Iran<\/a>, which began \u2060in February, was partly halted four weeks ago after the countries agreed to a fragile ceasefire mediated by Pakistan. However, Washington and Tehran have since engaged in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/4\/24\/how-long-can-iran-survive-the-uss-hormuz-blockade\">naval confrontations<\/a> and seizures of commercial vessels.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Iranian ship will also be backloaded to Pakistani territorial waters for return to its original owners after necessary repairs,\u201d Islamabad said, adding that the returns are being coordinated with the support of both the Iranian and US sides.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPakistan welcomes such confidence-building measures and will continue to facilitate dialogue and diplomacy while pursuing ongoing mediation efforts for regional peace and security,\u201d said the Foreign Ministry\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n<p>There was no immediate comment from Iranian authorities.<\/p>\n<p>Iran\u2019s semi-official Tasnim news agency, which is associated with the country\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), published a report on the Pakistan\u2019s foreign ministry\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n<p>US outlet ABC had reported on Sunday that the US Central Command (CENTCOM) aided in the transfer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUS forces completed the transfer of 22 crew members of M\/V Touska to Pakistan for repatriation,\u201d the report quoted CENTCOM spokesperson Captain Tim Hawkins as saying.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSix other passengers were already transferred to a regional country for repatriation last week,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>According to the report, Iranian state media identified the six as family members of several of the crew.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCustody of Touska is currently being transferred back to its original ownership after the ship was intercepted and seized when attempting to violate the US naval blockade against Iran last month,\u201d Hawkins said.<\/p>\n<p>The ship was boarded and seized by US forces on April 19. The small container ship, which was part of the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) group that has been hit with US sanctions, was boarded off the coast of Iran\u2019s Chabahar port in the Gulf of Oman.<\/p>\n<p>CENTCOM had said at that time that ship\u2019s crew failed to comply with repeated warnings over six hours, and the vessel was in violation of a US blockade.<\/p>\n<p>Iran had condemned the incident as \u201cunlawful and a violation\u201d \u2060of international law, and demanded \u2060the immediate release of the vessel, its sailors, and their families.<\/p>\n<p>The Pakistan\u2019s foreign ministry\u2019s announcement comes as tensions continue to soar over the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/5\/4\/iran-warns-us-to-stay-out-of-hormuz-after-trump-says-us-will-guide-ships\">Iran\u2019s military said<\/a> on Monday that it will attack US forces if they attempt to approach or enter the vital waterway, after US President Donald Trump announced a naval mission, dubbed Project Freedom, to \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/5\/3\/trump-says-us-will-help-free-up-ships-stuck-in-hormuz-strait\">guide<\/a>\u201d stranded ships out of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/newsfeed\/2026\/5\/3\/iran-lawmaker-says-strait-of-hormuz-will-not-return-to-pre%E2%80%91war-state\">Strait.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Twenty-two crew members from the seized Iranian ship MV Touska have been transferred to Pakistan for repatriation. The crew members of an Iranian ship that was seized by the United States after it \u201cfailed to comply\u201d with the US blockade on Iranian ports have been transferred to Pakistan for repatriation, Pakistan\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs &#8230; <a title=\"Crew of Iranian ship seized by US forces evacuated to Pakistan, gov\u2019t says\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/05\/04\/crew-of-iranian-ship-seized-by-us-forces-evacuated-to-pakistan-govt-says\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Crew of Iranian ship seized by US forces evacuated to Pakistan, gov\u2019t says\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}