The Armed Forces of Iran have announced this Saturday that a tanker suffered a fire and has been left immobilized after colliding with a naval mine in a restricted area located to the east of the Strait of Hormuz, in a context of growing warnings from Tehran to ships transiting through this strategic enclave.
According to a note released by the Iranian Army through the state broadcaster IRIB, the incident occurred in the early hours, when the vessel—whose flag has not been specified—was crossing what authorities describe as a "dangerous and prohibited zone," ignoring prior warnings and with its tracking and identification systems disconnected.
In the statement, Iranian authorities have reiterated that "any tanker that violates regulations and navigates the restricted area to the east of the Strait of Hormuz will be set on fire when it collides with naval mines."
The Iranian Army has also pointed to the owners of the vessels as responsible for maintaining maritime traffic in this area despite previous incidents, and has launched attacks against Washington, which it accuses of sending its capital "to the war of the mines and throwing it into the fire" for relying on "the nonsense of the criminal American president."
Tehran has declared the Strait of Hormuz closed—an important passage for the export of crude from the Persian Gulf to numerous countries—as a consequence of the offensive that was initiated in February by the United States and Israel against Iran, and has underscored that it only considers the routes authorized by its Armed Forces to be safe.
The United States, by contrast, maintains that there is no blockade in Hormuz, arguing that it maintains military control of the strait on its outer part and that it escorts certain ships to ensure the continuity of oil export shipments from the Near East.