Middle East & North Africa
Strait of Hormuz: another tanker in flames after hitting a mine – the Iranian Navy’s warning
Iran’s Navy says an oil tanker hit a naval mine in the eastern Strait of Hormuz on November 7, caught fire and was immobilised, and blames the ship for entering a zone Tehran has declared restricted.
Yet another tanker went up in flames in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s Army Navy announced that on the morning of Saturday, November 7 an oil tanker hit a naval mine in the eastern part of the Strait, caught fire and was immobilised.
Tehran presents the incident as the consequence of the ship’s own decision to ignore its instructions. The Navy’s public relations office claims the tanker was sailing within an area that Iran has designated prohibited and dangerous, despite repeated warnings, and that it had switched off its navigation systems. These are Iranian claims, not confirmed by an independent source.
The announcement ends with a threat. The same fate, it says, awaits any ship that ignores the warnings and enters the zones where Tehran has imposed restrictions.
A series of burning tankers
The new incident is the latest in a series recorded in recent days. On November 2 the Iranian Army Navy had reported an oil tanker that hit a mine in the eastern part of the Strait. The next day the Revolutionary Guards spoke of three tankers that hit mines and caught fire.
On November 5 the Guards announced that two tankers and a tug were in flames in two separate incidents on Wednesday night, and on Friday, November 6 we wrote about two more tankers hit by mines. The Guards had claimed then that one of the tankers hit a mine while using an unauthorised sea lane. Tehran uses the same argument in the new incident, this time in an announcement by the regular Navy and not the Guards.
Since the start of the US and Israeli war against Iran on February 28, Tehran has effectively controlled passage through the Strait. Ships need permission to pass, in some cases on payment of a fee, while Iran and Oman, which share the territorial waters of the area, have been negotiating for months to reopen the Strait. These restrictions are contested on the basis of international law, which guarantees free passage through international straits.
Before the war about a quarter of the world’s seaborne oil trade passed through Hormuz. The new incident comes after the American strikes on the island of Qeshm, which US President Donald Trump called “small,” and heightens concern over the safety of navigation in one of the planet’s most critical sea lanes.