A vessel, reportedly operating as a “floating armoury”<\/b> in the Gulf of Oman, has been seized by Iranian military personnel. This information comes from Vanguard, a maritime risk management company.<\/p>\n
The UK’s Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) organization stated that the ship is currently “bound for Iranian territorial waters.”<\/b><\/p>\n
Ship-tracking data from MarineTraffic, verified by BBC Verify, indicates that the vessel\u2014identified by Vanguard as the Honduras-flagged Hui Chuan<\/i><\/b>\u2014last transmitted its location on Wednesday. It was approximately 70km (40 miles) north-east of Fujairah in the UAE at that time.<\/p>\n
Operators of the Hui Chuan<\/i> informed Vanguard that the vessel functions as a floating armoury, storing weapons for security firms that provide protection against piracy for ships at sea. BBC Verify has stated it cannot independently confirm the ship’s cargo or its specific users.<\/p>\n
The BBC has previously highlighted that such vessels are strategically positioned in areas like the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, and Gulf of Oman to facilitate the easy collection and drop-off of weapons and ammunition for security personnel.<\/p>\n
This reported seizure of the Hui Chuan<\/i> follows an incident on Wednesday where an Indian-flagged vessel was attacked off the coast of Oman, as confirmed by Indian officials.<\/p>\n
Vanguard reported that the Haji Ali<\/i> “reportedly sank”<\/b> near the Omani coast after a suspected explosion, believed to have been caused by a “drone or missile.”<\/p>\n
Indian authorities confirmed on Thursday that “All Indian crew on board are safe, and we thank the Omani authorities for rescuing them.”<\/b><\/p>\n
MarineTraffic data shows the 57-meter (187ft) vessel departed Berbera Port in Somalia on May 6th, with its intended destination being Sharjah in the UAE, according to the Indian shipping ministry. Vanguard stated that the ship, which was carrying livestock, experienced a fire onboard, forcing the crew to abandon the vessel before it sank. Indian officials confirmed that fourteen crew members were transferred to Oman’s Diba Port by Oman Coast Guard units.<\/p>\n
India’s Ministry of External Affairs described the attack as “unacceptable.”<\/b><\/p>\nInternational Discussions on Strait of Hormuz<\/h3>\n
The situation in the Strait of Hormuz was a topic of discussion during talks on Thursday between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing.<\/p>\n
The White House indicated that President Xi “made clear China’s opposition to the militarization of the Strait.”<\/b> A readout from the US after the meeting stated that “The two sides agreed that the Strait of Hormuz must remain open to support the free flow of energy.”<\/b><\/p>\n
#GulfOfOman #MaritimeSecurity #ShipSeizure #HuiChuan #Iran #FloatingArmoury #InternationalWaters #ShippingNews #StraitOfHormuz #RegionalTensions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Vessel Identified as ‘Floating Armoury’ Seized A vessel, reportedly operating as a “floating armoury” in the Gulf of Oman, has been seized by Iranian military personnel. This information comes from Vanguard, a maritime risk management company. The UK’s Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) organization stated that the ship is currently “bound for Iranian territorial waters.” Ship-tracking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iran_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}