The Pentagon rejected late Wednesday IRGC’s claims that they prevented the attempts by United States to seize a tanker carrying Iranian oil in the Sea of Oman as absolutely totally false and untrue with the spokesman John Kirby claiming the only seizing that was done was by Iran, VOA reports.
Iranian state media quoted earlier on Wednesday Iran’s elite Guards’ claims that they’ve thwarted the US Navy’s operation to steal Iranian oil in the Sea of Oman with its timely and authoritative action, noting that the tanker Iranian media identified the seized tanker as “SOTHYS”, carrying Iran’s oil, docked at Bandar Abbas port on October 25.
Giving details of the reported incident, Press TV reported that members of IRGC naval forces carried out a heliborne operation on the detained tanker’s deck in the Sea of Oman and directed it back toward Iran’s territorial waters after gaining control of the vessel.
According to Kirby, the reality is that the US naval forces were just monitoring the situation in which Iranian forces had illegally seized and boarded a merchant vessel, blatantly violating the international and undermining the freedom of navigation and free flow of commerce.
However, he denied any attempt to engage with the IRGC forces or to retake the tanker.
The US officials claim that several Iranian drones had come close to the US Navy amphibious assault ship Essex in the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours. Speaking on condition of anonymity, they said the drones flew within about 1,500 meters of the Essex.
The United States were warned in more than one occasion about its military activities in the Gulf by Iran, which has increased patrols of its IRGC naval forces to combat fuel smuggling and to secure the passage of Iranian ships.
Increased tensions between the US and the Islamic Republic are additionally fueled amid stalled talks on reviving JCPOA, Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers that curtails Tehran’s uranium enrichment programme in exchange for a lifting of global sanctions.
Former President Trump withdrew the United States from the deal in 2018 and reimposed US sanctions on Iran, prompting Iranian authorities to breach various limits set by the deal.
Despite the renewed efforts to revive the deal, Iran’s top security official Ali Shamkhani stressed on Wednesday the talks would fail unless President Biden guarantees that Washington will not renege on the nuclear agreement in the future.
Shamkhani blamed the stalling in negotiations on Biden’s lack authority and hesitation to give guarantees, creating the current status quo.
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