Three tankers hit mines and catch fire in Strait of Hormuz as Qatar says US and Iran are reviewing draft deal proposals
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Navy says three oil tankers struck naval mines and caught fire in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday after using unauthorised routes, even as Qatar said Washington and Tehran are both reviewing mediator proposals aimed at ending the war.
Three oil tankers struck naval mines and caught fire in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, according to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Navy, in the latest blow to shipping through the world’s most important oil chokepoint on a day when diplomats were again talking about a possible way out of the war.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted the Guards’ Navy as saying the vessels had entered unauthorised shipping lanes with their navigation and identification systems switched off. The tankers were left burning off the southern coast of the strait, the statement said, and the Guards warned other ships against ignoring Iranian regulations or cooperating with the United States military to use unauthorised routes.
The account comes from the Iranian side and has not been independently verified in the reporting reviewed for this post. The Guards first said two tankers had been set ablaze after hitting mines at what it called an illegal crossing point, and later said a third tanker — carrying more than two million barrels of crude oil, according to a statement carried by state television — had also exploded and caught fire after striking a mine south of the strait. Fishermen in the eastern part of the waterway were reported to have seen the fires lighting up the night sky.
The Guards also used the statement to push back against the US military’s account of conditions in the strait. It disputed claims by US Central Command about the state of shipping lanes, saying the reality in the waterway was what was being seen on the water rather than what was being claimed on social media. The day before, the Guards had challenged an American claim that key routes through the strait had been cleared of mines, demanding independent evidence.
The incident underlines how dangerous the strait has become for commercial shipping since the war began on 28 February, when the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran. More than 130 attacks on tankers have been reported during the conflict, mainly against very large crude carriers, according to remarks by Saudi Aramco chief executive Amin Nasser reported on Tuesday, and freight rates have surged to more than 15 times their level a year ago.
That pressure is already reshaping energy infrastructure. Nasser said on Tuesday that Aramco is expanding its East-West pipeline, which carries crude across Saudi Arabia to the Red Sea and therefore avoids the Strait of Hormuz altogether, so that exports can keep flowing while the Gulf route remains under threat. The pipeline project is a reminder that the shipping crisis is not only a security story: it is forcing the world’s largest oil exporter to reroute its lifeline.
The tanker fires came against a tense military backdrop. The United States carried out limited strikes on Iran’s Qeshm Island on Monday, close to the strait, and Washington had paused a naval escort operation in the waterway after a single day. American officials have warned allies to prepare for possible further strikes after Tuesday’s midterm elections in the United States, while Iran has warned of retaliation if it is attacked again.
At the same time, a parallel diplomatic track was visibly alive on Tuesday. Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman, Majed al-Ansari, told reporters that both the United States and Iran remain committed to the mediation process and are reviewing proposals put forward by mediators, including Doha. “We are facilitating the real-time exchange of proposals between them,” he said, adding that Qatar remained hopeful a deal could still be reached.
That hope was tempered by a more cautious message from Tehran. A senior Iranian official told Reuters on Tuesday that Iran and the United States remain far from a deal, despite intensified diplomatic efforts, while parliament speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said the ball was in Washington’s court to prevent war. The talks, conducted indirectly through Qatari mediators, centre on a seven-step Iranian plan drawn up in September to reopen the strait and end the US naval blockade, with Tehran saying the strait could reopen within two days of an agreement rather than the seven originally envisaged.
What happens next now depends on two separate tracks moving at once. On the water, shipowners, insurers and navies will be watching whether more vessels are hit, whether independent maritime agencies confirm the Guards’ claims, and whether oil prices react to another day of burning tankers. At the negotiating table, the question is whether the draft proposals now being reviewed can bridge the gap between Iran’s demand for an end to the blockade and sanctions and Washington’s insistence that any deal address Iran’s nuclear programme. For now, Tuesday offered both: fire on the strait, and a mediator still insisting that a deal is possible.
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