Iran said Wednesday that a cargo ship carrying 2,500 containers sank after striking a naval mine in the Strait of Hormuz, the first mine-related sinking Tehran has reported during the current war.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps navy announced the incident on Oct. 14 but did not disclose the vessel’s name, flag or route. Iranian state television showed footage of a listing ship with smoke rising from it and said the vessel had entered an unauthorized and dangerous route. The fate of the crew was not specified in the Iranian account.
The Associated Press said it could not independently verify the footage or the circumstances of the sinking. Shipping officials in Singapore separately said one of two Singapore-registered cargo vessels struck by unknown projectiles had sunk and that the crews were safe, but an immediate link between that incident and Iran’s mine claim was not established.
The sinking came amid a sharp rise in attacks on commercial shipping. At least five incidents were reported over the previous 48 hours, including drone attacks, Reuters reported, citing Iranian officials. The officials said tactics were changing and warned that attacks could extend into the Gulf of Oman and waters near Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. One official described a move toward a full closure of the waterway for ships that did not comply with Iranian rules.
Before the war, about one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas trade passed through the Strait of Hormuz. The route was also used for roughly one-third of global urea trade and nearly half of seaborne sulfur shipments, making a prolonged disruption a threat to food production as well as energy supplies.
A U.N.-backed coordination plan in Oman would allow five fertilizer ships a day to transit the strait and could begin within seven to 10 days of an agreement between Iran and the United States, but negotiations had not produced a deal, Reuters reported.
An International Chamber of Commerce scenario estimated that a prolonged disruption could raise grain prices by as much as 81%, oilseed prices by 66% and livestock-product prices by 30%. Those figures are modeled risks, not reported current price increases.
Sources: Vesti Baku; The Associated Press; Reuters.