A ship anchored off the UAE was seized and steered toward Iran, while a cargo vessel near Oman sank after an attack, authorities said Thursday, in a fresh escalation of tensions in the Strait of Hormuz.
Responsibility for the incidents was not immediately clear. They came as a senior Iranian official restated Tehran’s claim over the strategic waterway, while another said Iran has the right to seize oil tankers linked to the United States.
The unrest in the strait, through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil passed before the conflict, has become a key sticking point in weeks of negotiations between Washington and Tehran aimed at ending the war. Iran’s tightening grip on the vital shipping lane has rattled global markets and pushed fuel prices higher far beyond the Middle East.
The ongoing instability in the region came as U.S. President Donald Trump met Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing. The White House said both sides agreed that the Strait of Hormuz must remain open.
Just last week, tensions flared in the strait when U.S. forces fired on and disabled Iranian oil tankers that they said were trying to breach its blockade of Iran’s ports.
