U.S. Navy says Iran Revolutionary Guard fast-attack boats ‘harassed’ ship in Strait of Hormuz

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. Navy mentioned Monday its sailors and the United Kingdom Royal Navy got here to the help of a ship within the essential Strait of Hormuz after Iran’s Revolutionary Guard “harassed” it.

Three fast-attack Guard vessels with armed troops aboard approached the service provider ship at a detailed distance Sunday afternoon, the U.S. Navy mentioned in a press release. It provided black-and-white pictures it mentioned got here from a U.S. Navy Boeing P-8 Poseidon overhead, which confirmed three small ships near the industrial ship.

The U.S. Navy’s guided-missile destroyer USS McFaul and the Royal Navy’s frigate HMS Lancaster responded to the incident, with the Lancaster launching a helicopter.

“The situation deescalated approximately an hour later when the merchant vessel confirmed the fast-attack craft departed the scene,” the Navy mentioned. “The merchant ship continued transiting the Strait of Hormuz without further incident.”

The Strait of Hormuz, the slender mouth of the Persian Gulf, sees 20% of the world’s oil move by it.

While the Navy didn’t establish the vessel concerned, ship-tracking information from MarineTraffic.com analyzed by The Associated Press confirmed the Marshall Islands-flagged bulk provider Venture erratically modified course because it traveled by the strait on the time of the incident. Its location additionally matched details about the incident given by the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, a British navy operation overseeing site visitors within the area. The vessel additionally resembled the pictures launched by the Navy.

The ship’s registered supervisor, Trust Bulkers of Athens, Greece, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

Iranian state media and the Revolutionary Guard didn’t instantly acknowledge the incident. Iran’s mission to the United Nations didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

This newest incident comes after a sequence of maritime incidents involving Iran following the U.S. unilaterally withdrawing from Tehran’s nuclear cope with world powers in 2018.

The suspected American seizure of the Suez Rajan, a tanker linked to a U.S. non-public fairness agency believed to have been carrying sanctioned Iranian crude oil off Singapore, probably sparked Tehran to just lately take the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Advantage Sweet. That ship carried Kuwaiti crude oil for power agency Chevron Corp. of San Ramon, California.

While authorities haven’t acknowledged the Suez Rajan’s seizure, the vessel is now off the coast of Galveston, Texas, in response to ship-tracking information analyzed by the AP.

Meanwhile, Iran individually seized the Niovi, a Panama-flagged tanker, because it left a dry dock in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, sure for Fujairah on the UAE’s jap coast. While not carrying any cargo, information from S&P Global Market Intelligence seen by the AP confirmed the Niovi in July 2020 obtained oil from a ship identified then because the Oman Pride.

The U.S. Treasury in August 2021 sanctioned the Oman Pride and others related to the vessel over it being “involved in an international oil smuggling network” that supported the Quds Force, the expeditionary unit of the Guard that operates throughout the Mideast. Purported emails printed on-line by Wikiran, a web site that solicits leaked paperwork from the Islamic Republic, counsel that cargo carried by the Niovi was bought on to corporations in China with out permission.

Satellite pictures analyzed by the AP present these two vessels anchored off Bandar Abbas, Iran.

The current seizures have put new stress on the U.S., lengthy the safety guarantor for Gulf Arab nations. The United Arab Emirates claimed final week it earlier “withdrew its participation” from a joint naval command known as the Combined Maritime Forces although the U.S. Navy mentioned it was nonetheless within the group. Meanwhile, the U.S. navy’s Central Command mentioned Saturday its chief visited the area, met with Emirati chief Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and “discussed shared regional security concerns as well as U.S. and UAE security partnerships.”