Saudi Military Vessels Detain Three Iranian Fishermen

Iranian media has reported that Saudi military vessels have detained three Iranian fishermen along with their boat near the 'Marjan' platform. On Thursday (June 17), Fars News Agency wrote that Saudi military forces announced the boat was detained for entering the waters of this country. The identities of the three crew members, Saeed and Vahid Khosravi and Majid Mahini, have been disclosed, and no reports have been released regarding their fate so far. The local site 'Aftab Ab Pakhsh' also criticized some fishermen for their 'carelessness' regarding entry into the waters of neighboring countries. This site wrote that following the tense relations between Iran and some Gulf states, 'strict behaviors and severe punishments are being applied against detained fishermen.' The local site considered the situation of those fishermen detained by Saudi forces to be 'much worse.' On February 4 of last year, three Iranian fishermen were also detained by Kuwaiti forces and transferred into the territory of that country, with no information about their fate available to date. The identities of these fishermen, Abdolhasan Bakhtar, Iman Daryapur, and Abbas Abasi, have been disclosed. Southern Iran has significant shared maritime borders with some Arab countries like Kuwait, where reports of fishermen being detained in these waters are published annually. Local fishermen are usually arrested on charges of 'illegal' entry into the waters of the country that detains them, imprisoned for a while, and released after negotiations. However, the local site 'Aftab Ab Pakhsh' stated that after the severance of relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia, the possibility of diplomatically pursuing the fate of detained fishermen has dropped to zero.