Iranian forces boarded a cargo ship bound for Jebel Ali yesterday – after firing shots across its bridge – and directed it towards the Iranian mainland.
The captain of the MV Maersk Tigris, which sails under a Marshall Islands flag, initially refused orders to move further into Iranian waters in the Strait of Hormuz.
But he complied after warning shots were fired across the bridge, the US military said.
The US navy responded by sending a destroyer and a plane to the area. The cargo ship, with 34 people aboard, was directed to waters near Larak Island and Bandar Abbas.
The ship was on an “internationally recognised maritime route” when it was intercepted by the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard naval force, a US state department spokesman said.
Rickmers Ship Management, who chartered the vessel from its Danish owners, said they did not know why it was stopped.
But Iran’s Fars news agency said it was seized by the navy acting on a court order because of a financial dispute between the ports authority and the ship’s owners.
Iranian state television reported that the crew are from Britain, Bulgaria, Romania and Myanmar.
Bandar Abbas is the main port for Iran’s navy and separate naval forces operated by the Revolutionary Guard. It is also the country’s primary commercial port.
“It is inappropriate” for the Iranians to have fired warning shots across the ship’s bridge yesterday, Pentagon spokesman Col Steve Warren said.
Col Warren said it was too early to know whether the Iranian intervention amounted to a breach of the freedom of navigation through a waterway heavily used by international shipping.
The cargo ship had been boarded by Iranians, but no one was injured and no Americans were involved. Col Warren said the US government had “certain obligations” to defend the interests of the Marshall Islands, but he was uncertain as to how those obligations to the Pacific Ocean nation applied in this case.
Five or six Iranian vessels approached the cargo ship about 1pm UAE time. After the ship sent a distress call, the US navy sent the destroyer USS Farragut and a navy patrol and reconnaissance aircraft to monitor the situation.
A website that tracks the movements of commercial shipping showed the vessel sharply change course before heading towards Bandar Abbas. The container ship was on its way from Jeddah to Jebel Ali.
The Strait of Hormuz is the route for about a fifth of the world’s oil and is only about 33 kilometres wide at its narrowest point. The shipping lane in either direction is only 3.2 kilometres wide, with a 3.2km buffer zone between them.
Iran has threatened to block the strait, a move that could spark a military conflict in the Arabian Gulf. American and allied naval forces routinely patrol the strait and have conducted military drills aimed at countering threats such as mines that Iran might use to close it.
Tehran frequently conducts military exercises of its own in and around the strait.
In 2007, Revolutionary Guard forces captured 15 British sailors and marines from a frigate in the Gulf, accusing them of operating in Iranian waters. They were released less than two weeks later.
* Associated Press and Bloomberg
