Tensions flare near Strait of Hormuz as ship is seized and another is sunk

A ship anchored off the UAE was seized and taken towards Iran and another — a cargo ship near Oman — sank after being attacked, authorities said, as tensions escalated near the Strait of Hormuz.

It was not immediately clear who was behind these incidents, but they happened as a senior Iranian official reiterated his country’s claim of control over the waterway and another said it had a right to seize oil tankers connected to the US.

The ship was seized off the east coast of the UAE and is heading toward Iranian waters, the British military said on Thursday.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre said it received reports that the vessel was taken by unauthorised personnel while anchored 38 nautical miles (70 kilometres) north-east of the UAE port of Fujairah, near the Strait of Hormuz.

Indian authorities also announced on Thursday that an Indian-flagged cargo ship sank off the coast of Oman after an attack sparked a fire aboard the vessel while it was en route from Somalia to Sharjah, another UAE port, on Wednesday, without identifying who attacked the ship.

The situation in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil used to pass through on a typical day, continues to capture the world’s attention as Iran’s grip has jolted the world economy and caused a spike in fuel prices that has rippled through other sectors with effects far beyond the Middle East.

UKMTO did not name the ship seized on Thursday and said it is investigating, and there were no immediate claims of responsibility for the seizure.

Fujairah is an important oil export terminal and the UAE’s main port outside of the Persian Gulf.

It has been repeatedly attacked during the war with Iran.

The attack on the Indian-flagged cargo ship Haji Ali occurred on Wednesday, according to Mukesh Mangal, a senior official in India’s shipping ministry.

He said all 14 Indian crew members were rescued by Oman’s coast guard and were safe.

India’s foreign ministry called the incident “unacceptable” and condemned continued attacks on commercial shipping and civilian mariners.

The ministry did not identify who carried out the attack.

The seizure comes as US President Donald Trump met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on a much-anticipated visit to Beijing.

The White House said both sides had agreed that the Strait of Hormuz must remain open.

Iranian semi-official news agencies reported that Chinese ships began passing through the strait on Wednesday night under new Iranian protocols.

According to the reports, Tehran agreed to facilitate the passage of several Chinese vessels after requests from China’s foreign minister and Beijing’s ambassador to Iran.

The ships began their passage as Mr Trump arrived in China.

The seizures also happened hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he had quietly visited the UAE during the Israeli-US war with Iran, though the UAE swiftly denied that any secret visit had occurred.

The Gulf nation normalised relations with Israel in 2020.

Iran has criticized that agreement and has repeatedly suggested over the years that Israel maintained a military and intelligence presence in the UAE.

Israeli leaders have made occasional visits to the UAE in recent years after normalising relations.

Mr Netanyahu’s decision to go public with the sensitive meeting was likely an effort to drum up local support for his flagging party ahead of Israeli elections, said Yoel Guzansky, a senior researcher at the Institute of National Security Studies, a defence think tank in Tel Aviv.

“It’s amazing, it’s the deepest cooperation we’ve ever had… that during a war, Israel is defending an Arab state against Iran. It shows how complicated the Middle East is,” he said.

Iran said it will not enter more talks with the US unless Washington meets five conditions, including paying reparations for the war and accepting Iran’s sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported, citing an informed source.

The White House is again unlikely to accept those demands, especially formalising Iran’s control over the waterway, which was open to international traffic before the war.

Iran’s senior vice president, Mohammadreza Aref, said on Thursday that the strait belongs to Iran and that Tehran would not give it up “at any price”, state TV reported.

“It has always been our property,” Mr Aref said.

Iran’s judiciary spokesman told the state-owned Iran Daily newspaper on Thursday that Iran has the legal and judicial right to seize oil tankers connected to the US in the strait because the US has violated international maritime laws and committed piracy.

The spokesman, Asghar Jahangir, did not explicitly refer to the tanker seized on Thursday.

Iran seized a number of ships, including a tanker identified as the Ocean Koi, last week, saying it was attempting to disrupt oil exports and Iranian interests, according to the official IRNA news agency.

It said the tanker was seized in the Gulf of Oman and was carrying Iranian oil when it was boarded and taken to Iran’s southern coast.

The US sanctioned the Ocean Koi in February as part of a “shadow fleet” that has been transporting Iranian oil.