Iran says two tankers hit mines in Strait of Hormuz as it offers seven-day plan to reopen the waterway

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Saturday 17 October that two oil tankers, each carrying about two million barrels of crude, caught fire after hitting naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz, Al Jazeera reported. The ships’ names were not released.

The IRGC said one tanker tried to cross “with US support” after switching off its tracking systems, AFP reported. Iranian state news agency IRNA said both ships had used a route Iran had not authorised. This week the IRGC’s naval commander warned that any vessel that turned off its navigation systems would be treated as “hostile”.

US Central Command spokesman Captain Tim Hawkins told Fox News that about 97% of ships trying to transit the strait had done so without being hit, and that the waterway remained open. He said the US naval blockade of Iranian ports was continuing.

Speaking at an Organisation of Islamic Cooperation meeting in Baghdad on Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran had passed a seven-day plan to reopen the strait to the United States through Qatar. “One cannot bomb a country, threaten its annihilation and impose a blockade, and then expect the security of navigation to return to normal,” he said, according to Middle East Eye. He said the decision now rested with Washington, Gulf News reported. US President Donald Trump said at a rally in Kentucky that the war would end “very quickly”.

Background

The US-Israeli war on Iran began in late February. Iran then took control of the Strait of Hormuz, which carried about a fifth of world oil consumption before the war, and requires ships to get its permission to pass. The US responded with a naval blockade of Iranian oil exports. The two countries signed a memorandum of understanding in Islamabad on 17 June, but Iran says later US and Israeli strikes broke it. Attacks on ships near the strait have increased over the past two weeks.