The British Army said that an oil tanker traveling off the coast of Oman in the Strait of Hormuz caught fire early Tuesday morning after it was hit by a projectile.
The attack was the latest to target a ship moving through the narrow mouth of the Arabian Gulf, through which a fifth of all oil and natural gas trade passes in peacetime. Iranian state television said that the liquefied natural gas tanker was attacked after warnings were ignored, but it did not directly claim responsibility for the attack.
Tehran has repeatedly declared that its approved route through the strait is the only safe one and is suspected of attacking other ships that used another route near the Omani coast.
The United States is keen to move forward with negotiations with Iran with the goal of fully reopening the strait, curtailing Tehran’s disputed nuclear program, and reaching a permanent end to the war that began on February 28. But previous attacks in the Strait sparked retaliatory strikes by the US, which then saw Iran attack Gulf Arab states – raising the risk of escalation.
Meanwhile, talks between Iran and the United States appear to be on hold even after the burial of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed at the beginning of the war. Evidence increased that mourners at his funeral were calling for the death of US President Donald Trump.
Authorities transported Khamenei’s body to the Shiite city of Qom overnight, where mourners honored him on Tuesday.
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The tanker was exposed in the latest attack in the strait
The UK Maritime Trade Operations Center said the tanker was hit near Lima, Oman, in the strait. UKMTO said the projectile struck the port side of the ship as it attempted to travel south out of the strait towards the Gulf of Oman.
She said there was no environmental impact from the strike and that authorities were investigating the matter.
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Iranian state television, citing anonymous sources, indicated that Tehran carried out the attack on a tanker that it said was carrying natural gas from Qatar. However, there has been no official claim from the Islamic Republic regarding the attack.
Iran’s joint military command warned last Thursday that all oil tankers moving through the strait must use its approved routes. She also said that the intervention of US forces in the strait “will be met with a swift and decisive response.”
But the Joint Maritime Information Center, a multinational body overseen by the US Navy, told shippers on Monday that the route around Oman “has been expanded and remains accessible to all traffic.”
On Monday at the White House, Trump also warned Iran that they would need to “make a deal, or we will finish the job.”
“I’d rather make a deal because I don’t want to affect 91 million people,” Trump said. “We can knock down their bridges in an hour. We can cut off their power supply.”
Iran and the United States agreed, as part of a temporary agreement, to allow ships to pass without paying fees for 60 days. But Tehran insisted on controlling ship routes and then charging fees for passage, ending decades of practice in the waterway.
The United States and several Gulf Arab states say they will not agree to impose fees on Iran for passage through the strait. An attempt by Oman and a UN agency to launch a new road near the coast of Oman earlier sparked attacks across the Middle East, highlighting tensions.
Data company Kpler reported that over the weekend at least 108 ships passed through the strait using various routes.
Mourners gather in Qom for Khamenei’s funeral
Early Tuesday, Iranian state television broadcast live images from a helicopter of hundreds of thousands of people walking towards the Jamkaran Mosque, just south of the city of Qom, to attend Khamenei’s funeral ceremony. Shiites believe the mosque once hosted Muhammad al-Mahdi, the twelfth and final Shiite imam, who disappeared in the ninth century and will reappear one day to bring justice to the world.
Pictures of Khamenei and his son, Iran’s new supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, were displayed on banners and posters carried by mourners. Mojtaba Khamenei has not yet appeared at the funeral ceremony, which will continue over several days. He is believed to be in hiding after being injured in the airstrike that killed his father.
At the height of the war, before the April ceasefire, Israel targeted senior Iranian leaders, in at least one case likely using their public appearances to reform their position. She also threatened to kill the younger Khamenei.
The authorities closed the streets, airspace and daily life on the occasion of the mourning that began on Saturday and ends on Thursday with the burial of Khamenei in the Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad, his hometown. Khamenei was 86 years old.
& Edition 2026 The Canadian Press
