Tensions escalated again near the Strait of Hormuz this week after a ship anchored off the United Arab Emirates was seized and a cargo vessel sank off the coast of Oman following an attack, maritime authorities said.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre said it had received reports that the seized ship was boarded by unauthorised personnel while anchored about 38 nautical miles north-east of the UAE port of Fujairah, a major oil-export terminal repeatedly targeted during the war with Iran. The British military said the vessel was being steered toward Iranian waters. The UKMTO did not name the ship and said it was investigating.
Separately, Indian authorities said an Indian-flagged cargo ship sank off Oman after an attack sparked a fire on board. The vessel had been sailing from Somalia to Sharjah, another UAE port, when it was struck.
It was not immediately clear who carried out either action. The incidents came as a senior Iranian official reiterated Tehran’s claim of control over the waterway and another asserted that Iran had a right to seize oil tankers connected to the United States.
The strait, through which roughly a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil normally passes, has been effectively closed under a dual blockade that has emerged as a central obstacle to stalled US-Iran negotiations. The International Energy Agency has estimated that crude and fuel flows through Hormuz fell by around four million barrels a day in March and April.
The new incidents came the same week Trump and Xi discussed keeping the strait open to commercial shipping during their Beijing summit, underscoring how far the corridor remains from any return to normal traffic.