Dubai — British maritime safety agency Vanguard Tech stated Tuesday {that a} U.S.-flagged tanker was approached by Iranian gunboats, which threatened to board the vessel, within the Strait of Hormuz, earlier than persevering with on its approach beneath navy escort. The incident comes amid a tense standoff between the U.S. and Iran, and simply days forward of anticipated negotiations.
The Stena Crucial was approached by three pairs of small armed boats belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps whereas transiting the Strait of Hormuz, roughly 16 nautical miles north of Oman’s coast, the corporate stated.
The gunboats hailed the tanker by radio, ordering the captain, “to cease the engines and put together to be boarded,” however the ship elevated velocity and maintained course, the agency added, stressing that it by no means entered Iranian territorial waters.
“The vessel is now being escorted by a U.S. warship,” Vanguard Tech stated.
The U.S.-flagged tanker was nonetheless heading in the right direction for its vacation spot in Bahrain on Tuesday afternoon, scheduled to reach on the port Sitrah on Feb. 5, data from the MarineTraffic web site confirmed.
MarineTraffic.com/V. Tonic
The British maritime safety company UKMTO had reported the incident earlier, with out specifying the nationality of the ship nor of the boats that approached it, saying solely that it had been “hailed on VHF by quite a few small armed vessels,” however ignored the request to cease and “continued on its deliberate route.”
“Authorities are investigating,” UKMTO stated in its assertion, warning all vessels within the Strait of Hormuz “to transit with warning and report any suspicious exercise.”
The Strait of Hormuz is a key passage for world transport of oil and liquefied pure gasoline, and it has been the scene of a number of incidents previously amid pressure between Iran and the West.
Iran’s Fars information company, which is carefully linked to the Revolutionary Guards, cited unnamed authorities officers on Tuesday as denying the report by Vanguard Tech, claiming a vessel was intercepted after it entered Iran’s territorial waters with out permission.
Getty/iStockphoto 
Monitoring knowledge from MarineTraffic confirmed the Crucial remained inside Oman’s maritime financial zone because it traversed the Strait.
A senior Iranian official from the Revolutionary Guards threatened final week to dam passage of the Strait within the occasion of a U.S. assault, and the Guards additionally held navy workout routines over the weekend within the strategic waterway.
President Trump has threatened repeatedly that he might launch a brand new navy strike on Iran over the nation’s brutal suppression of latest protests, or if it declines to barter a brand new deal on its nuclear program.
Talking to CBS News last week, Mr. Trump stated “I’ve had” conversations with Iran in the previous couple of days, and “I’m planning” to have extra.
Mr. Trump stated that, in these conversations, he “instructed them two issues. No. 1, no nuclear. And No. 2, cease killing protesters. They’re killing them by the 1000’s.”
A minimum of 10 U.S. warships — together with an plane service and a minimum of 5 destroyers — have been heading towards Iran’s coastal waters as of final week, a deployment Mr. Trump has known as an “armada,” which he stated he hopes he would not want to make use of.
U.S. and Iranian officers are anticipated to carry talks on the finish of this week.
