Iran war live: Tehran slams US ‘piracy’ after ship seizure, vows response

Iran ship seizure: US seizes Iranian vessel, Tehran vows retaliation

Muhammad Asghar | GlobalBeat

Iranian naval forces said the US Navy seized an Iranian oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman, calling the move “maritime piracy.”

Washington claimed the vessel carried sanctioned crude for Tehran in violation of international restrictions.

The seizure threatens to ignite direct naval exchanges between the two arch-rivals at a moment when Israel and Iranian militaries are already trading fire across the Levant.

Iran depends on clandestine tanker networks to sell oil, sending cargoes through the narrow Omani waters that connect the Persian Gulf to open ocean. Repeated US and British interdictions cost the government an estimated $15-20 billion in sales in 2024, diplomats said.

Foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said Captain Bill Urban of the US Fifth Fleet ordered the boarding on Wednesday “without legal justification.” Khatibzadeh told state TV the vessel was transporting fuel to Yemen and rejected Washington’s claim that the oil was bound for Syria. “American pirates must know their cheap shows create a cost,” Iran’s top naval officer Shahram Irani warned on Thursday. Irani said Iran’s diesel-electric submarines have been “instructed to prepare operational plans.”

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed the interception but released few details. Pentagon spokespeople said Sailors from destroyer USS Cole took control of the 22-crew tanker after a request from Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. They said satellite imagery showed the ship turning off its transponder near Masirah Island before the seizure. Hegseth met Israeli counterpart Israel Katz in Tel Aviv on Thursday morning to coordinate “joint maritime security,” Katz’s office announced.

Oil markets reacted: Brent climbed $2.41 to $76.38 a barrel while West Texas Intermediate breached $72 for the first time in a month. Shipping insurer Lloyd’s Joint War Committee widened the listed danger zone to cover the entire Strait of Hormuz retroactive to dawn Thursday, meaning freight costs on routes into the gulf will jump roughly 8 per cent for the next 30 days.

The crew, all Indian nationals according to Tehran, have been moved to a naval supply ship and face deportation within 72 hours to Oman, US Central Command stated. India’s external affairs ministry said it is seeking consular access but gave no further comment.

Previous American arrests of Iranian tankers off Oman’s coast drew retaliatory seizures of British-flagged ships by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 2019. Three of those Stena Impero crew members spent two months in Bandar Abbas before release. Analysts warned the latest incident revives that playbook. “Iran has shown it responds in like when its commercial shipping is attacked. Expect gunboats paralysing traffic in Hormuz within days,” Farzin Nadimi of the Washington Institute wrote.

Rising civilian casualties are complicating the diplomatic fallout. Iranian social media posted video showing enormous flames leaping above what users identified as a petrochemical plant near Bandar Abbas early Thursday. The semi-official Tasnim agency blamed an accident, but residents told GlobalBeat electricity was cut and they heard jets overhead minutes earlier. “The sound was not normal, it was warplanes,” tractor mechanic Reza Ghadiri, 37, said.

Background

From 2019-2021 Iran and the United States fought a long shadow war across Persian Gulf waters following President Trump’s 2018 withdrawal from the nuclear accord. Tanker attacks, drone shoot-downs, and an aborted American retaliatory air strike on 21 June 2019 set the temperature. When Joseph Biden entered the White House both sides tried to calm the waters while keeping plenty of firepower stationed nearby. The return of Donald Trump to power in January 2025 coincided with renewed Israeli strikes against Iran-backed groups in Iraq and Syria. Both Washington and Jerusalem say Tehran is nine months from enough enriched uranium to build a bomb if it chose, deepening the sense time to act is shrinking.

Iran relies on oil for 80 per cent of export revenue but its tanker fleet is small and many ships sail under flags of convenience. US sanctions have obliged Tehran to use circuitous routes and transponder silence. Big Chinese and Indian buyers continue to purchase Iranian crude at steep discounts, but increased enforcement steals around 700,000 barrels a day from Iranian lifelines, the International Energy Agency estimated last year. Tehran’s security doctrine therefore treats tanker seizures as an economic act of war justifying asymmetric retaliation through missiles, drones or mines.

What’s Next

Iran’s revolutionary court is due to convene a special session on Sunday to rule on potential counter-measures. Officials familiar with the discussions said options include seizing a Western commercial tanker or using shore-to-seir cruise missiles to disable US navy logistics ships at anchor in Bahrain. Diplomatic channels remain open, though Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned “any reciprocal interference with lawful shipping will trigger an EU naval protection mission.”

The episode arrives days before Iranian naval exercise dubbed Supreme Authority 12 slated for the Sea of Oman. Observers will watch whether deployed assets focus more on offensive mining or mock interdictions, a tell-tale sign Tehran plans tit-for-tat.