Iranian state television claimed this week that a foreign ship got stuck in the Strait of Hormuz, but the ship is tied to Iran. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Associated Press.
Iranian state television reported that a foreign ship ran aground in the Strait of Hormuz after ignoring instructions from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. However, the vessel is linked to Iran and appears to have been in the strait for months.
The vessel, based on its shape, reported location and other details, is the container ship Arista, reportedly flying a false flag linking it to Comoros. That ship was known last year as the Panama-flagged Gauja, which the U.S. Treasury included in sanctions targeting a network described as generating tens of billions of dollars in profit for Iran's ruling elite.
Iranian state television aired on-screen alerts Wednesday about a foreign ship that got stuck ignoring the Guard's commands. A state TV news anchor said: "A foreign container ship, because of choosing a route other than the one designated under the Iranian order, has run aground in the Strait of Hormuz." The anchor added that the Guard's navy had warned that using routes other than "the Route of Authority" in the Persian Gulf could lead to irreparable incidents.
The report appeared aimed at underlining Tehran's claim that it controls the strait. Since the U.S. and Israel launched the war against Iran on Feb. 28, Tehran has used its ability to choke off the waterway as a key source of leverage, disrupting global markets for energy and other critical goods.
TankerTrackers.com, a company tracking oil shipments at sea, was one of the first to identify the ship as the Arista. Footage shot by an Armenian news outlet matches the ship in the state television footage, pointing to the colors of the containers and the paint scheme. Iranian state TV did not air a close-up image of the ship's name or registration number, and in one shot, it blurred the vessel's name.
Marine tracking data shows the Arista has been stuck north of Hormuz Island in Iran's territorial waters since the middle of March. The ship had been traveling between Hormuz and Asaluyeh.