Iran claims to ‘intercept’ US Navy vessels after offloading of seized oil tanker
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Iran state media touted questionable footage that allegedly confirmed harassment of US Navy vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, shortly after lawmakers pushed to start offloading a seized tanker believed to hold Iranian oil.
Pentagon officers rapidly denied claims from Tehran, amplified by state media, that US vessels had been intercepted.
“That report is just not true. So I don’t know the place that’s coming from, however we’ve seen this from them earlier than pushing out,” Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told Fox Information Monday.
“I don’t know if it’s propaganda, however I might say unfaithful statements, and that simply is just not correct.”
Iranian media claimed that the oil-rich nation’s speedboats caught as much as the US vessels and warned them to not violate Iran’s territorial waters.
The Strait of Hormuz is a key strategic strip of water between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman the place practically a 3rd of the world’s oil flows via.
The not too long ago launched footage from Iran purports to indicate an encounter on Aug. 17 involving the USS Bataan and USS Thomas Hudner.
Notably, the Iranian ships have been a lot smaller in dimension than the US Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and amphibious assault ship allegedly proven.
The spat between the 2 nations comes because the US reportedly started offloading cargo from a seized tanker consider to have been transporting sanctioned Iranian oil to Singapore.
Suez Rajan, the oil tanker, has sat off the coast of Texas since Could and a slew of US corporations appeared skittish to dump in, scared of potential retaliation from Iran.
Final week, a bipartisan and bicameral group of 10 lawmakers implored the Biden administration to finish the deadlock and offload the tanker.
Since then, cargo from the tanker has been offloaded, per monitoring knowledge.
“Lastly, after months of delay, the Biden administration has listened to my bipartisan name for motion and signaled to Iran that the USA is not going to be complacent within the face of Iranian threats,” one of many lawmakers, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-La.) mentioned in a press release.
“No overseas adversary ought to query America’s energy and that we’ll arise for the lives and livelihoods of People.”
Cargo aboard that vessel is estimated to be 800,000 barrels of oil, valued at an estimated worth of $56 million.
Below US legislation, 75% of income from the oil sale can be deposited within the US Victims of State-Sponsored Terrorism Fund, which compensates victims and survivors of atrocities together with the Sept. 11, 2001, al Qaeda assaults and the 1979-81 Iran hostage disaster.
Final month, a senior Iranian navy official warned that Tehran would retaliate in opposition to any firm that offloads the tanker.
Moreover, again in July, the US navy introduced it might ship extra forces to the Center East to counter Tehran’s current makes an attempt to grab ships.
Roughly 20 overseas service provider vessels have reportedly been harassed or seized by Iran over the previous two years.
The Biden administration has been in talks with Iran to present it entry to $6 billion in assets from oil cash that had been frozen in South Korea in change for liberating 5 American detainees.
The Submit contacted a Pentagon spokesperson for remark.
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