Iran has released two Egyptian maritime officers detained since Dec. 23, 2025, aboard an Emirati oil tanker in Bandar Abbas, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday, completing their return procedures after an eight-month diplomatic effort.
The release of the two officers resolves a high-profile consular crisis involving the Reem Al-Khaleej, an Emirati-flagged oil tanker intercepted by Iranian forces in the Strait of Hormuz near Qeshm Island.
The two officers were the last remaining Egyptian crew members held from the vessel’s four-man crew, following the release of an engineer and a welder in February.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty conducted “high-level communications” with Iranian officials to secure the release, according to a ministry statement issued Tuesday.
Abdelatty directed Egypt’s Interests Section in Tehran to finalize departure arrangements. The head of the Egyptian mission in Tehran met with the officers to verify their health and well-being before they departed Iran for Cairo.
Assistant Foreign Minister for Consular Affairs and Egyptians Abroad Ambassador Haddad El-Gohary met with the seafarers’ families at the ministry’s headquarters and briefed them on the efforts that led to their release and on return arrangements, according to the statement.
In late January, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry announced that it was following up on the four seafarers after a video circulated in which one of them appealed to Egyptian authorities to intervene. He said the vessel had been detained on Dec. 23 while crossing the Strait of Hormuz.
According to the seafarer, the vessel was carrying petroleum products from Sharjah in the UAE and had what he described as valid shipping documents. Iranian authorities then took the vessel into their territorial waters and impounded the cargo on suspicion of smuggling.
The seafarer said at the time that Iranian authorities had imposed a total fine of $14 million, or $3.5 million for each crew member, and threatened to jail them if it was not paid. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry did not present his account as established fact.
Following the video’s publication in January, the Foreign Ministry clarified that the allegations pertained directly to the vessel’s corporate operations rather than the crew. Egypt’s Interests Section in Tehran subsequently dispatched a diplomat to Bandar Abbas port to deliver legal and consular assistance, initiating the negotiation process that culminated in Tuesday’s release.
