IRGC summons tanker in Hormuz and orders it to turn back, UKMTO reports

An oil tanker passing through the Strait of Hormuz was summoned on Sunday by the navy of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and ordered to turn back or risk being hit, the British maritime monitoring body UKMTO announced, as Al Jazeera reports. The ship’s captain obeyed the Iranian forces’ order.

UKMTO said the incident happened about 20 kilometres north of the port of Khasab in Oman, in the strategic part of the strait through which about a fifth of the world’s oil supply passes. The crew, according to the announcement, is safe.

The incident comes at a time when shipping through Hormuz remains severely disrupted. Iran has in practice blocked the strait since the start of the U.S.–Israel war against Iran on 28 February, has repeatedly attacked commercial ships and has declared that it will charge ships for passing through the strait.

The blockade has caused a global oil shipping crisis, with hundreds of tankers stranded in the Gulf of Oman and the price of Brent fluctuating above 100 dollars a barrel. Tensions escalated again this weekend after attacks on ships resumed in Hormuz and the IRGC warned the strait’s southern corridor.