Two governments gave two different versions of a dangerous weekend in the waters near the Strait of Hormuz, and the only points both sides agree on are that ships were hit and that the world’s most sensitive oil route is getting harder to use.
Start with what the United States has said in its own words, because it is the only account backed by a named ship and released video. United States Central Command, the US military command for the Middle East, said its forces disabled a commercial cargo vessel in the Gulf of Oman on Saturday after the crew ignored repeated warnings and tried several times to break the naval blockade of Iran.
“A U.S. military aircraft fired precision munitions at the stern of St. Kitts-flagged M/V Huda, disabling the ship after CENTCOM forces directed the crew to abandon targeted spaces,” the command said. “The cargo vessel tried to depart regional waters after visiting an Iranian port.” Central Command said that since July it has turned back 147 ships that obeyed its instructions and disabled five that refused. The command has also announced a new task force, Task Force Iron Gate, to stop weapons and sanctioned material reaching Iran over land borders and through the Caspian Sea.
Britain’s maritime safety agency, United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, known as UKMTO, recorded an incident on Saturday involving a bulk carrier and military forces about 18 nautical miles east of Khor Fakkan in the United Arab Emirates. It listed the crew’s status, the damage and any environmental impact as unknown, and it did not name the ship. Reuters said it was unclear whether the report concerned the American strike.
Iran’s account is different, and it is not confirmed. The navy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said late Saturday that two oil tankers hit naval mines and caught fire while using a route Iran calls unauthorized, one east of the strait and one inside it. It said the ships had turned off their navigation and identification systems. On Sunday the Guard said three more tankers had “exploded and caught fire” in what it called the illegal channel. It named no ships, gave no casualty figures, and news agencies said they could not confirm the reports or tell whether the Saturday and Sunday statements described the same vessels.
Iranian state television added that officials had not confirmed any missile strike on Iranian soil after explosions were heard in the south, including on Qeshm Island, and suggested the blasts may have come from Iranian military activity. The Tasnim news agency said two missiles hit Qeshm. Neither government has commented on that claim.
One more fact stands apart, and it should stay apart until officials connect it. The United Arab Emirates National Guard said on Sunday that its Coast Guard rescued 22 crew members, all Arab nationals and all in stable condition, from a cargo ship that caught fire in the Gulf of Oman. The Guard did not name the ship or say what caused the fire. Nothing published so far shows that this was the Huda.
No deaths have been reported in any of the weekend incidents by any government or agency involved.
For readers, the stake is the strait itself. The Strait of Hormuz carries a large share of the world’s traded oil. Every confirmed strike, and every unconfirmed claim of mines, pushes insurers and shipowners to treat the route as a war zone, which raises the cost of moving fuel everywhere. Qatar, which is mediating talks between Washington and Tehran, said on Saturday that both sides are still working toward an agreement. The shipping claims show how thin the calm at sea remains while the talks continue.
Transparency note: The US strike on the M/V Huda rests on Central Command’s statement and its released video. Iran’s mine and tanker claims rest on Revolutionary Guard statements carried by Iranian state and semi-official media. Reuters and Agence France-Presse both said they could not independently confirm the Iranian claims, and no tanker has been officially named. The UAE rescue has not been linked by any official source to the US strike.
