The Iranian Embassy has strongly denied US President Donald Trump’s claim that Tehran carried out a drone attack on Indian vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, calling the accusation “simply baseless”.
At the same time, Iran accused Washington of attempting to divert attention from recent US military strikes in the Gulf of Oman that killed three Indian sailors.
“The US president’s accusation against Iran regarding an Indian vessel in the Strait of Hormuz is simply baseless,” the embassy posted on social media.
“It is an attempt to divert public attention from the brutal fact that the US has attacked three Indian vessels in less than a week and killed three innocent Indian sailors. That’s pathetic,” the statement added.
Trump’s remarks came hours after India summoned US Charge d’Affaires Jason Meeks and described the American military’s “lethal and deadly” strikes on commercial vessels carrying Indian crew members off the coast of Oman as “unacceptable”.
It was the second time this week that New Delhi summoned Meeks over US attacks on three vessels that resulted in the deaths of three Indians.
A Palau-flagged oil tanker, Marivex, carrying 24 Indian seafarers, was disabled by US forces on June 8. All crew members were rescued safely.
On June 10, another Palau-flagged tanker, Settebello, was struck, killing three of the 24 Indian sailors on board.
Another vessel, Jalveer, a Guinea-Bissau-flagged tanker carrying 20 Indian crew members, was attacked on Thursday.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the strikes on the Settebello, Marivex and Jalveer “came from the US Navy”.
Jaiswal added that two of the three vessels were under sanctions administered by the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), while another had been classified as non-compliant.
The OFAC is the financial intelligence and enforcement agency of the US Treasury Department and acts against vessels accused of violating US sanctions on the sale of Iranian and Russian oil.
Meanwhile, the US Central Command said it initiated operations to disable the three vessels — Marivex on June 8, Settebello on June 9 and MT Jalveer on June 11 — alleging that they were attempting to violate the US blockade of Iranian ports.
