A US warship has engaged Iranian boats in the Strait of Hormuz, a security company said

Dubai – The British maritime security company, Vanguard Tech, said on Tuesday that an American military ship had encountered Iranian boats, which threatened to board the ship, in the Strait of Hormuz, before continuing on their way under military surveillance. The incident took place in the middle of a tense situation tensions between the US and Iranand several days before the expected interviews.

The Stena Imperative was approached by three pairs of small armored boats of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps while passing through the Strait of Hormuz, about 16 nautical miles north of the coast of Oman, the company said.

Gunmen radioed the ship, ordering the captain “to stop the engines and prepare to board,” but the ship increased speed and maintained its course, the company added, insisting it did not enter Iranian waters.

“The ship is now escorted by an American warship,” Vanguard Tech said.

The US Central Command issued a statement confirming the incident, saying, “Two IRGC boats and an Iranian Mohajer drone approached the M/V Stena Imperative at high speed and threatened to board and seize the ship.”

CENTCOM spokesman Captain Tim Hawkins said the guided-missile USS McFaul immediately responded to the scene and escorted the ship with the support of the US Air Force. “The situation is good because of this, and the American-flagged ship is proceeding safely,” he said.

The tanker was on its way to Bahrain on Tuesday afternoon, scheduled to arrive at the port of Sitrah on Feb. 5, information from the MarineTraffic website is shown.

Britain’s maritime security agency UKMTO had previously reported the incident, without specifying the identity of the ship or the boats that had arrived, saying only that it was “fired on the VHF by several small armed vessels,” but that it ignored a request to stop and “continued on its planned course.”

“The authorities are investigating,” UKMTO said in a statement, warning all vessels in the Strait of Hormuz “to proceed with caution and report any suspicious activity.”

The US Central Command also confirmed on Tuesday that The US military opened fire the Iranian Shahed-139 drone that flew into the US Navy aircraft carrier, USS Abraham Lincoln, in the Arabian Sea earlier the same day.

The Strait of Hormuz is an important transit point for oil and liquefied natural gas, and has been the scene of several incidents in the past amid tensions between Iran and the West.

Iran’s Fars news agency, which is closely linked to the Revolutionary Guards, cited unnamed government officials on Tuesday as denying the Vanguard Tech report, saying the ship was seized after it entered Iranian waters without permission.

Tracking data from MarineTraffic showed that Impoqo stayed in Oman’s maritime economic zone as it crossed the Strait.

A senior Iranian official from the Revolutionary Guards threatened last week to block passage through the Strait in the event of a US attack, and the Guards also held military exercises over the weekend in the waterway.

President Trump has threatened many times that he can get started a new military strike on Iran due to the country’s brutal repression of recent protests, or if it refuses to negotiate a new deal on its nuclear program.

Speaking to CBS News last week, Mr. Trump said he “had” talks with Iran in the past few days, and “planned” to have more.

Mr. Trump said, in those conversations, “he told them two things. No. 1, no nuclear. And No. 2, stop killing protesters. They’re killing thousands.”

At least 10 US warships – including an aircraft carrier and at least five destroyers – have been targeting Iranian coastal waters since last week, Mr.

US and Iranian officials are expected to hold talks later this week.