A commercial ship was "forcibly seized" by Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Thursday in international seas in the Gulf, and the ship may have been used for smuggling, according to a U.S. report. a spokeswoman for the Navy.
According to Commander Tim Hawkins, spokesman for the U.S. 5th Fleet, the U.S. Navy has assessed the situation and decided against taking any more action, as reported by Reuters.
Around 59 nautical miles northeast of the port city of Dammam in Saudi Arabia, the Iranian military made an effort to board a small tanker flying the Tanzanian flag, according to the British maritime security company Ambrey.
According to the Navy, an Iranian naval ship approached the Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker TRF Moss in international waters in the Gulf of Oman around 01:00 local time (21:00 GMT).
The statement added that the Navy had deployed surveillance resources, including maritime patrol aircraft. "The Iranian vessel departed the scene when U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS McFaul arrived on station," the statement read.
The oil tanker Richmond Voyager, flying the flag of the Bahamas, reportedly made a distress call to the Navy around three hours later while passing international seas more than 20 miles (32 km) off the coast of Muscat, Oman.
According to a Navy statement, "another Iranian naval vessel had closed within one mile of Richmond Voyager while hailing the commercial tanker to stop," and the McFaul had set course for the merchant ship at top speed.
Iran Declines Comment
Iran's official news agency, IRNA, reported on Wednesday (July 5) that Iranian authorities had made no comments.
Brad Cooper, vice admiral in charge of the U.S. "The exceptional effort by the McFaul crew for immediately responding and preventing another seizure," noted Naval Forces Central Command.
At times of tension between the United States and Iran, there have been a number of attacks on shipping in vital Gulf waters since 2019. Just over a month prior, Iran captured two oil tankers in the space of one week. Navy stated.
Assaults on Ships
The latest in a string of assaults on ships in the area since 2019, the U.S. Navy announced on Wednesday that it had intervened to stop Iran from capturing two commercial tankers in the Gulf of Oman.
Prior to the incident this week in the Gulf of Oman, the Richmond Voyager was reportedly berthed in Ras Tannoura in eastern Saudi Arabia, according to Refinitiv ship monitoring data.
According to Refinitiv ship monitoring, the Richmond Voyager was sailing out of the Gulf with Singapore marked as its destination.
Leading ship registries, such as Greece and the Marshall Islands, have issued warnings recently about the danger to commercial ships in the Gulf, notably through the Strait of Hormuz.
Another area of contention was when, in April, as part of a sanctions enforcement operation, the U.S. seized a shipment of Iranian oil on a tanker, according to individuals who spoke to Reuters.
The Suez Rajan, a ship with a Marshall Islands flag, is anchored outside of American territory. Refinitiv ship monitoring shows that the Galveston terminal in the Gulf of Mexico is waiting to unload its cargo.
According to statistics from analytics company Vortexa, around a fifth of the world's supply of seaborne crude oil and oil products goes through the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint between Iran and Oman.
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