Middle East & North Africa
IRGC: three tankers hit mines in the Strait of Hormuz; ships with transponders switched off to be treated as “hostile”
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Navy said on October 11 that three tankers that violated its transit rules hit sea mines and caught fire. The statement named no ships and there is no independent confirmation. Tehran also said its deal with Oman does not mean the Strait will open immediately.
The Navy of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) announced on Sunday, October 11, that three tankers that violated Iranian transit rules in the Strait of Hormuz hit sea mines and caught fire since the previous day. The IRGC’s statement, named none of the ships and gave no details on the crews or on where the explosions took place.
Warning over identification systems
In the same statement the IRGC Navy’s press office warned that “all ships in the Strait of Hormuz that switch off their navigation and identification systems will be designated hostile” and that they “will face severe punishment”. Many vessels switch off their Automatic Identification System (AIS) in crisis areas so that they cannot be tracked. Tehran now treats that practice as a sign of hostile intent.
There is no independent confirmation of the three incidents. Mines are among the most dangerous weapons in the Strait because they strike indiscriminately and clearing them takes time and specialised vessels. The Revolutionary Guards have attacked ships in the area before: on October 10 they said they had hit the LPG tanker “NV Sunshine” south of the Strait.
The agreement with Oman
On the same day Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said that the agreement between Iran and Oman on safe shipping corridors through the Strait does not mean it will open immediately. “The recent bilateral agreement with Oman on the entry and exit routes in the Strait of Hormuz is an important legal and technical measure that replaced the procedures of previous years,” he told the SNN television network (translated). But “the agreement with Muscat does not provide for an immediate opening of the Strait”.
According to Gharibabadi, the two countries are seeking to register the agreement with the UN’s International Maritime Organization (IMO), but the opening of the Strait “depends entirely on the fulfilment of US obligations”. He added that Tehran “is not obliged to open the Strait at this stage” and that it will keep controlling it until Washington sees that a military solution is not a way out. Oman controls the southern shore of the Strait, with the Musandam peninsula, and has repeatedly acted as a mediator between Tehran and Washington. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei had said on October 7 that Iran and Oman had agreed on the geographic coordinates of the safe corridors.
Tension in the Strait remains high. On the same day CENTCOM announced that a US fighter jet had disabled the “Ocean Molica” in the Gulf of Oman. Iran’s Supreme National Security Council secretary Mohsen Rezaei has also said that the Strait will not open until Tehran’s conditions are met, calling the US reply to its seven conditions “inadequate”.
