DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranian state television claimed this week that a foreign ship got stuck in the Strait of Hormuz after ignoring instructions to use a route laid out by the Islamic Republic’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.But the ship is tied to Iran — and seems to have been in the strait for months. The vessel, based on its shape, reported location and other details, is the container ship Arista, reportedly flying a false flag linking it to the island nation of Comoros. That ship was known last year as the Panama-flagged Gauja, which the U.S. Treasury included in sanctions targeting what it described as a network that had been “generating tens of billions of dollars in profit” for Iran’s ruling elite. Here’s a closer look.
THE CLAIMSIranian state television aired on-screen alerts Wednesday about what it described as a foreign ship that got stuck ignoring the commands of the Guard’s navy. “A foreign container ship, because of choosing a route other than the one designated under the Iranian order, has run aground in the Strait of Hormuz,” a state TV news anchor said in the segment, which included images of the ship grounded. “This comes as the navy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has consistently warned that any entry into or exit from routes other than ‘the Route of Authority’ in the Persian Gulf could lead to irreparable incidents.”
