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TEHRAN The historical town of Siba, which is situated in the Kukherd district of Irans Hormozgan province, has gained a national status to receive better maintenance and care.

The historical town of Siba, which is located in the Kukherd rural district in Bastak county, has been registered on Irans cultural heritage list, the provincial tourism chief said on Sunday.

Siba is home to an ancient hydraulic structure and arrays of ruined structures, castles, and fortresses, Mohammad Mohseni said.

In addition to the historical town, a former administrative structure, a bridge, and an edifice were added to the prestigious list, the official stated.

Siba fortress and a neighboring bathhouse are among the most remarkable examples of the cited Sassanid structures surrounded by a trench in the ancient town.

The history of Siba fortress was the center of government in that area. It acted as a fortified military base for some time and was surrounded by a huge trench for protection. A trench was an ancient defensive strategic feature to defend the cities, castles, and forts in Persia before the Islamic era. The gigantic structure was considered a traditional defensive ancient landmark like other landmarks at that time, such as huge city gates, cellars, security tunnels, and underground military storage.

The bathhouse was built adjacent to a natural hot spring, during the Sassanid era. It served Sassanid government officials, the merchants from nearby seaports and desert caravan routes, and the public.

The Sassanid era is of very high importance in the history of Iran. Under Sassanids, Persian architecture and arts experienced a general renaissance. Architecture often took grandiose proportions, such as palaces at Ctesiphon, Firuzabad, and Sarvestan, which are amongst the highlights of the ensemble.

Generally, a Sassanid archaeological landscape represents a highly efficient system of land use and strategic utilization of natural topography in the creation of the earliest cultural centers of the Sassanid civilization.

In 2018, an ensemble of Sassanian historical cities in southern Iran, titled Sassanid Archaeological Landscape of Fars Region, was named a UNESCO site.

AFM

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April 27 (Reuters) - Iran seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman in international waters on Thursday, the U.S. Navy said, the latest in a series of seizures or attacks on commercial vessels in sensitive Gulf waters since 2019.

Iran's army said it had seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman after it collided with an Iranian boat, injuring several crewmen, Iranian state media reported.

"Two members of the boat's crew are missing and several were injured due to the collision of the ship with the boat," an army statement said.

The U.S. Navy identified the vessel as the Advantage Sweet. According to Refinitiv ship tracking data, it is a Suezmax crude tanker that had been chartered by oil major Chevron (CVX.N) and had last docked in Kuwait.

Chevron said it is aware of the situation involving the Advantage Sweet and is "in contact with the vessel operator with the hope of resolving this situation as soon as possible," a spokesperson said.

The vessel's destination was listed as the U.S. Gulf of Mexico port of Houston, ship tracking data showed.

Its manager is listed as Genel Denizcilik Nakliyati AS. The Turkey-based company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Marshall Islands Maritime Administrator said it was aware of the situation and was in communication with the vessel's owner/operator but declined to comment further.

"Iran's continued harassment of vessels and interference with navigational rights in regional waters are a threat to maritime security and the global economy," the U.S. Navy said, adding Iran has in the past two years unlawfully seized at least five commercial vessels in the Middle East.

The U.S. Navy added that after sending a P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft to monitor the situation, "we have since been able to determine the IRIN (Iranian navy) conducted the seizure".

Iranian authorities did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

About a fifth of the world's crude oil and oil products passes through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow choke point between Iran and Oman which the Advantage Sweet had passed through, according to data from analytics firm Vortexa.

Maritime security company Ambrey said the vessel had been boarded via helicopter. "The vessel did not show any signs of conducting evasive manoeuvres prior to the incident," it said.

Munro Anderson, with maritime security company Dryad, said separately that Iran usually detained vessels for "leverage or signalling".

"The working hypothesis at the moment is that it could either be an arbitrary detention of a vessel by Iran in response to the U.S. sailing its first unmanned vessel through the region last week - as a show of force," he said. "Or, it could be in response to the sanctions on the 24th (of April) by the U.S. against personnel in Iran connected to the IRGC (elite Revolutionary Guards)."

Since 2019 there have been a series of attacks on shipping in the strategic Gulf waters at times of tension between the United States and Iran.

Iran last November released two Greek-flagged tankers it seized in the Gulf in May in response to the confiscation of oil by the United States from an Iranian-flagged tanker off the Greek coast.

Indirect talks between Tehran and Washington to revive Iran's 2015 nuclear pact with world powers have stalled since September over a range of issues, including the Islamic Republic's violent crackdown on popular protests, Tehran's sale of drones to Russia and acceleration of its nuclear program.

The U.S. Navy, whose Fifth Fleet is based at the Gulf island state of Bahrain, called on Iran to immediately release the tanker.

The ship issued a distress call during the seizure, the U.S. Navy statement said.

According to the International Maritime Organisation shipping database, the Advantage Sweet is owned by a China-registered company called SPDBFL No One Hundred & Eighty-Seven (Tianjin) Ship Leasing Co Ltd.

Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath in BengaluruEditing by Bernadette Baum

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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An influential commentator in Iran says the weak performance of President Ebrahim Raisi's administration has seriously terrified his conservative allies.

Mohammad Mohajeri, a conservative himself and former editor of hard-line daily Kayhan, has said in an interview that conservatives believe the current government has left such a bad record that its opponents are highly likely to win the next parliamentary and presidential elections.

"However, their fear may be baseless as the supporter of reformists and a large part of Iranian voters are not willing to take part in the elections," Mohajeri said, adding that nonetheless, conservatives will continue their smear campaign against relative moderates such as former President Hassan Rouhani, former Majles Speakers Ali Larijani and Ali Akbar Nateq Nouri.

Meanwhile, Mohajeri said in another interview that Iran's reformists and conservatives have influence only among 15 to 20 percent of the society. He also charged that 90 percent of Iran's Friday Prayer Imams belong to the conservative camp and the Friday Prayers are a podium for only one political faction.

However, a national reconciliation is possible in Iran only if the government facilitates the political participation of all political groups in the elections. He added that there is not much time for that as fierce campaigning for the parliamentary elections will start in around two months from now.

Conservative pundit Mohammad Mohajeri

He suggested that to facilitate political participation, the government needs to bring about essential changes in economic, political and cultural arenas. He argued that the government's inability to improve the economy will keep deeply disillusioned voters away from the ballot box.

Many people are also currently annoyed by the government's unilateralism. Enforcing compulsory hijab and filtering the Internet have deeply annoyed the people so that they are reluctant to take part in political activities such as voting in the elections.

However, Mohajeri said in the interview that some ultraconservatives including those around the housing minister Mehrdad Bazrpash have already started their campaign.

Mohajeri warned that if the government does anything beyond what has been stipulated in the Constitutional Law, the people will feel their essential rights have been undermined.

Many protesters during the past months chanted slogans against Iran's rigid Constitution which gives every right to hardliner clerics to restrict the freedom of the populace.

Meanwhile, he lashed out at the government's heavy-handed approach against unveiled women and said that it was quite clear from the start that policies such as launching a morality police would face resistance by women.

Agreeing with Mohajeri on the situation of the current government, Sharyar Heidari, a member of parliament told Rouydad24 website in Tehran that in the next election Raisi is not likely to win a quarter of the votes he received in 2021.

Iranian sociologist Nematollah Fazeli

In another development, Iranian sociologist Nematollah Fazeli said in an interview with Khabar Online that the government does not have a true understanding of the people's demands. Fazeli said the government would have been at ease to accept some of the demands of the people if they were simply about the economy. But the people's understanding of politics and the gender issue has changed over the years and the government cannot understand that.

"Women had a focal position in the recent movement in Iran although there were other activists too. This is caused by a major development in social knowledge in Iran," he said, which emanates from within the society and its everyday life and the people's collective experience."

Fazeli added that the understanding what happened in Iran during the past months requires a thorough understanding of women's role, but little attention has been paid to this matter by any government entity. This requires a new look at women and femininity, an issue that has been marginalized after the 1979 Islamic revolution, the sociologist said.

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Iran's Conservatives Fear Losing Upcoming Elections -

As the Iranian regime closed at least 2,000 businesses since late March for womens refusal to wear compulsory hijab, tens of thousands have lost their jobs.

Reformist Shargh daily in a report Thursday said statements by the police and other officials about the implementation of a campaign against hijab-lessness indicate that around 2,000 businesses including restaurants, cafes, tourist accommodations, retail shops and even a counseling clinic and a gym -- have suffered closure in the past month only.

On Tuesday hardline media reported that some businesses, mainly restaurants and cafes, owned by celebrity artists and popular footballers have been shut down or received warnings over defiance of hijab rules by their staff and customers.

Authorities also announced on the same day that they had shut down Opal Mall, a massive modern shopping center with over 450 businesses in Tehran. Shargh said the closure of the mall alone has resulted in the loss of around 2,500 jobs.

Woman has a seizure at a shopping arcade in northern Iran after hijab enforcers fire their guns during a scuffle with business owners.

At the start of the month, Irans 83-year-old ruler Ali Khamenei reiterated the regime's stance on hijab, which became mandatory after the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979. He said: Discarding hijab is haram (sinful) based on Sharia and also politically."

His declaration was a clear signal to all state and religious authorities to do anything it takes to re-establish control over women who are increasingly joining the civil disobedience movement against forced hijab rules.

However, legal experts say closure of businesses is unjustified even based on the Islamic Republics own laws and the Sharia.

Has anyone ever heard of a street being banned because of a murder that happened there? Or is it possible to shut down a government office because of corruption? Businesses cannot be sealed because someone removes their hijab there, Mohammad Mansouri-Boroujeni, a professor of law at Esfahan University wrote in a commentary on April 20.

A group of Iranian women unveiling in public

Mohsen Borhani, an Islamic law expert and lawyer, argued in a tweet that nowhere in Sharia one can find reasons to justify the ban on selling commodities to hijab-less women or to shut down a shop if a hijab-less woman is spotted there. You neither abide by the law, nor the Sharia. Its flustering! he tweeted April 18.

The police have also said they are prosecuting those who promote defiance of the compulsory hijab on social media and have warned hundreds of imminent prosecutions, placed hundreds of hijab promoters on the streets to warn women, and banned entrance of unveiled women to museums and other public venues.

Hijab banner in Tehran says it is mothers legacy for their daughters.

Tehran municipality has recently put up hundreds of banners on the streets to promote the hijab. Hijab is the legacy of mothers, one such banner which shows a mother donning a black veil on a very young girl says while another equates opposition to the compulsory hijab to destroying the foundations of families.

My mother did not wear the hijab. Neither did my grandmother. Id like to adhere to my own heritage, a woman said in a video of one of the hijab banners she sent to Iran International.

In a tweet with a photo of the woman who protested the compulsory hijab, another woman said fighting against the compulsory hijab was mothers legacy

The recent campaign to enforce hijab rules has caused some violent incidents involving pro-hijab vigilantes and women who defy it. A 60-year-old woman had a cardiac arrest this week when a fight broke out between vigilantes and members of her family over hijab.

A member of the family of Kolsum Oftadehpour told Iran International TV that there was no autopsy and authorities did not allow them to see the body before and during the burial which they carried out without the familys involvement. The family have been threatened not to talk, he said.

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Thousands Lose Jobs In Iran Due To Closure Of Businesses For Hijab -

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Iran's navy seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday heading to the U.S. amid wider tensions over Tehran's nuclear program, the latest-such capture in a waterway crucial for global energy supplies.

The U.S. Navy's Mideast-based 5th Fleet identified the vessel as the Advantage Sweet. Satellite tracking data for the vessel from MarineTraffic.com showed it in the Gulf of Oman, just north of Oman's capital, Muscat, on Thursday afternoon. It had just come from Kuwait and listed its destination as Houston.

The Advantage Sweet issued a distress call at 1:15 p.m. while in international waters as Iran seized the vessel, the Navy said.

"Irans actions are contrary to international law and disruptive to regional security and stability," the 5th Fleet said in a statement. Iran should immediately release the oil tanker.

The Navy initially said Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard seized the vessel, but an American naval aircraft later confirmed that Iran's navy captured the ship, 5th Fleet spokesman Cmdr. Timothy Hawkins told The Associated Press.

Iran's state-run IRNA news agency said the seizure came after an unknown ship collided with an Iranian vessel last night in the Persian Gulf, causing several Iranian crew members to go missing and get injured. It did not identify the other ship involved in the alleged collision.

The Advantage Sweet had been in the Persian Gulf on Wednesday, but its track showed no unusual behavior as it transited through the Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of all traded oil passes. Iran has made allegations in other seizures that later fell apart as it became clear Tehran was trying to leverage the capture as a chip to negotiate with foreign nations.

Irans harassing activity within the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman is commensurate with an established pattern of behavior that has seen Iran target vessels as a result of ongoing disputes," maritime security firm Dryad Global said.

The 5th Fleet said the Iranian seizure was at least the fifth commercial vessel taken by Tehran in the last two years.

Iran's continued harassment of vessels and interference with navigational rights in regional waters are a threat to maritime security and the global economy, it added.

U.S. Army Gen. Erik Kurilla, the top U.S. commander for the Middle East, said in a statement that the illegal seizure of the tanker was ""another in a continuing series of violations by Iran of the international rules-based order."

The vessel's manager, a Turkish firm called Advantage Tankers, issued a statement acknowledging the Advantage Sweet was being escorted by the Iranian navy to a port on the basis of an international dispute. All the ship's 24 crew members are Indian.

The safety and welfare of our valued crew members is our No. 1 priority, the firm said. Similar experiences show that crew members of vessels taken under such circumstances are in no danger.

The ship's listed owner appeared to be a Chinese company.

Manifest information from data firm Refinitiv showed the Advantage Sweet carried Kuwaiti crude oil for American energy firm Chevron Corp. of San Ramon, California. Chevron said it was aware of the situation.

We are in contact with the vessel operator with the hope of resolving this situation as soon as possible, Chevron spokesperson Christine Dobbyn said in a statement.

Thursday's seizure by Iran was the latest in a string of ship seizures and explosions to roil the region.

The incidents began after then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from Irans nuclear deal with world powers, which saw Tehran drastically limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

Also, the U.S. Navy has blamed Iran for a series of limpet mine attacks on vessels that damaged tankers in 2019, as well as for a fatal drone attack on an Israeli-linked oil tanker that killed two European crew members in 2021.

Tehran denies carrying out the attacks, but a wider shadow war between Iran and the West has played out in the regions volatile waters. Iranian tanker seizures have been a part of it since 2019. The last major seizure came when Iran took two Greek tankers in May and held them until November.

In the wider Mideast, Iranian-backed militias in Syria have carried out attacks on U.S. forces, including one that killed a contractor in March. The U.S. responded with airstrikes.

Meanwhile, talks over Irans tattered nuclear deal have been stalled for a year. Since the deals collapse, Iran runs advanced centrifuges and has a rapidly growing stockpile of enriched uranium. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has warned Iran has enriched enough up to 60% purity a short technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90%. That would be sufficient for Iran to make several nuclear weapons if it chooses to do so.

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Associated Press writer Robert Badendieck in Istanbul contributed to this report.

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Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.

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