A tanker disappeared in the Ormuzian Strait

The Riah oil tanker, which has been walking through the Strait of Ormuz, has not transmitted information about its location for more than two days. The American authorities believe that Iran could capture him, the Associated Press (AP) reported on Tuesday.

“Of course, we suspect that it was captured,” it quotes the source in the Pentagon. He stated that the longer there is no contact with the team, the more fears. He also did not rule out that the ship may be faulty.

On Tuesday evening, the official representative of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Abbas Musavi, said that "a foreign tanker, due to the technical malfunction, was towed by the Iranian Navy to the territorial waters of the Islamic Republic" after receiving a response to a request for assistance. "Iranian sailors acted in strict accordance with international rules," he added. According to the diplomat, the ship will be in Iranian waters until the malfunction is completely eliminated.

According to sources in the Pentagon, about two days ago the ship entered the territorial waters of Iran. After that, a system was disabled that gives signals about its location. For three months of displacements along the UAE, the tanker never turned off the coordinate transmission system, the agency’s interlocutor noted. Typically, Riah moved from Dubai on the west coast of the UAE, crossed the Strait of the Ormuzian and stayed in the El Fujar on the eastern shore of the country.

Iran officials did not provide any information about the ship. Representatives of the UAE said that the distress signal was not transmitted from the tanker. "The oil tanker does not belong and is not used by the UAE, he did not give a distress signal," said a senior emirate official of Al -Arabia .

In Tehran and Abu Dabi have not yet commented on the situation. The US Navy fleet, which controls the waters of the Middle East, refused to comment.

Since May 11, at least four vessels have been attacked near the territorial waters of the UAE.

On July 4, the British marine infantry was detained by the Iranian oil tanker Grace-1 in the waters of Gibraltar, who went to Syria in violation of international sanctions. Tehran promised to take response.

On July 9, Iranian ships tried to capture the British oil tanker, which was accompanied by Montrose frigate.

It is possible that Tehran tried to fulfill his promise to detain the British ship if the authorities of Great Britain did not let the Grace 1 tanker, detained on July 4 in Gibraltar. The need for such a measure previously stated the secretary of the Iranian Council of the expediency of Mokhsen Rezai. The United States accuses Tehran of attacks on tankers in Oman and Persian bays. Iran rejects all the accusations.

After the incident, the United States reported the intention to form an international coalition to support merchant ships in the Persian Gulf in connection with the situation around Iran. This was stated on Thursday by President Donald Trump to the post of chairman of the Committee of Chiefs of Staff (KNS) of the US Armed Forces (Sun), General Mark Millie.

The central command of the US Armed Forces (Sentkom) in early July indicated that the situation around Iran demands an “international decision”. “The world economy depends on free trade, and all countries are required to protect and maintain this cornerstone of global prosperity,” said Sentkom, whose zone of operational responsibility includes primarily the Middle East and Central Asia.