The Pentagon on Wednesday (November 3) dismissed the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ claim that they had frustrated the US attempt to detain a tanker carrying oil from the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Oman Sea.
Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby told reporters: “I have seen Iranian claims, they are completely false and untrue…this is a false claim.”
“The only confiscated is Iran,” Kirby said.
U.S. officials said that the Iranian army actually seized a Vietnamese flag tanker last month, and the U.S. Navy was only monitoring the situation.
The Iranian Elite Guard said in a statement issued by Iran’s official media earlier on Wednesday: “With the timely and authoritative actions of the Guards Naval Forces, the US terrorist navy’s operation to steal Iranian oil in the Oman Sea failed.”
“The tanker carrying Iranian oil docked at Bandar Abbas on October 25.”
Although the Iranian media referred to the impounded tanker as “SOTHYS”-the tanker tracking website named a vessel flying the Vietnamese flag-footage broadcast by state television showed a red tanker surrounded by about 10 speedboats. It also includes TV recordings of encounters between Iran and the U.S. forces.
Iran’s national television broadcast a scene in which the Islamic Revolutionary Guards defeated an American hacker’s attempt to steal Iranian oil shipments in the Oman Sea.
U.S. officials admitted that #Iran Since October 24, they have seized an oil tanker that they claimed to fly the Vietnamese flag.
Part 1 pic.twitter.com/3l8zVgrUjm— Marwa Osman|| Marwa Osman (@Marwa__Osman) November 3, 2021
Iran has repeatedly warned the United States about its military activities in the Gulf, saying that the Guard’s navy has increased patrols to ensure the passage of Iranian ships and combat fuel smuggling.
Drone
In providing details of the reported incident, the TV news station stated that when the Iranian oil tanker was seized in the Oman Sea, the guard reacted “swiftly”.
“Guards and naval members carried out a helicopter landing operation on the detained tanker deck, took control of the ship, and led it back to Iranian territorial waters,” news TV reported.
In addition, US officials told Reuters that in the past 24 hours, several drones (believed to be Iranians) approached the US Navy amphibious assault ship Essex in the Strait of Hormuz.
As negotiations on resuming Iran’s 2015 nuclear agreement with the world’s major powers reached a deadlock, tensions between Tehran and Washington increased. Under the agreement, Tehran scaled back its uranium enrichment program in exchange for the lifting of global sanctions.
Iran’s top security official Ali Shamhani said on Wednesday that unless U.S. President Joe Biden can guarantee that Washington will not violate the nuclear agreement in the future, the talks will fail.
Since then President Donald Trump withdrew from the United States and imposed sanctions on Iran in 2018, the agreement has been eroded, prompting Tehran to violate various restrictions on uranium enrichment set by the agreement.
Shamhani wrote on Twitter: “The President of the United States lacks authority and is not prepared to provide guarantees. If the current status quo continues, the outcome of the negotiations will be obvious.”
