TEHRAN, IRAN. — Strikes around the strategic Strait of Hormuz have picked up again as mediated efforts to end the US-Israel war on Iran remain deadlocked.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy said on Saturday night (Iranian time) that an unnamed crude oil supertanker hit a naval mine and suffered a major fire while using an unauthorised route in the waterway with navigation systems turned off. In a statement, it warned of a similar fate for any oil tanker that “wishes to ignore the security and rules” of the strait, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas passes in peacetime.
On Sunday, a senior Iranian army official told state television that the country’s forces remain prepared for both defensive and offensive operations, more than seven months since the United States and Israel started the war by attacking Iran on February 28.
“We have struck blows against enemy vessels. If anything else happens against Iran, we will strike them again,” said Habibollah Sayyari, chief of staff and joint coordinator of the army.
His comments came after the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reported several incidents of military action or warnings against vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman over the past day.
It said ship masters in the vicinity of Ras al-Khaimah, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), had been directed via radio broadcast overnight to move from their anchorages. And on Sunday afternoon, UKMTO reported an unidentified projectile had struck a tanker heading outbound through the Strait of Hormuz.
Separately, the UAE said its coastguard had rescued 22 crew members after a fire broke out at an unnamed tanker close to its shores, although it did not identify the cause of the blaze.
Early on Sunday, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) released footage of a fighter jet bombing the stern of a Panama-flagged cargo vessel in the Gulf of Oman and disabling its propulsion to enforce its naval blockade of Iran’s southern ports.
Since the US reimposed the blockade in mid-July, CENTCOM says its forces have disabled four commercial vessels, turned around 135 ships and destroyed 10 tankers linked with Iran. Washington says Tehran has exported no oil through the blockade line.
This comes as at least a dozen ships were attacked over the week ending on October 5, the highest number since the war began. At least one was hit off the north coast of Qatar, signalling that the danger extends beyond the immediate Hormuz passage as Iran and the US vie for control.
The ship attacks appear to have decreased energy flows that had surpassed pre-war levels at the start of the month. Kpler data cited by CNBC on Friday showed that average crude passing through the strait for the week ended October 7 was 8.5 million barrels per day, roughly 40 per cent below the normal level.
Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, told reporters on Sunday that authorities plan on using military and diplomatic avenues to get what they want.
“The Islamic Republic will decisively pursue the country’s interests,” he said. “If those interests can be secured through diplomacy, that is much better, but if not, we will secure them in the field of battle”.
Messages continue to be exchanged between the two sides through mediators, although no breakthrough is expected in the coming weeks leading to the US midterm vote, set to take place on November 3, and Israel’s election, due on October 27.
