The United States offered millions in cash to tanker captains of Iranian vessels in a bid to seize Iranian ships, the State Department confirmed to the Washington Free Beacon.
The Financial Times on Wednesday reported that the Indian captain of an Iranian tanker suspected of shipping oil to Syria was offered several millions of dollars by Brian Hook, the U.S. representative for Iran and senior policy adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
The State Department was offering the money to sail the ship to “a country that would impound the vessel on behalf of the U.S.”
A State Department spokesperson confirmed to the Free Beacon that details in the Financial Times article were accurate.
The offer was made in a bid to disrupt illicit Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps activities, according to the spokesperson. – READ MORE