The US military disabled the Gambia-flagged bulk carrier Lian Star in the Gulf of Oman after the vessel ignored multiple US Navy warnings while attempting to enter an Iranian port overnight, a US official told the Associated Press on Saturday.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations, said the ship was disabled by US aircraft and remains adrift in the Gulf of Oman. US forces have not boarded the Lian Star.
The action brings to six the number of commercial vessels US forces have stopped from breaching the blockade of Iranian ports since it was imposed on 17 April. One of the six ships was allowed to proceed; the rest were turned back or, in the Lian Star’s case, physically disabled.
Washington launched the blockade after Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz when the war began with US and Israeli strikes on 28 February. A fragile ceasefire has held since 7 April, and Trump met with advisers Friday but has yet to decide on extending it by 60 days while new nuclear talks are held. Iran says the framework is not finalised.
Commercial traffic has continued to flow through the strait at a much lower volume despite Iran’s insistence that it must approve every transit. Tehran’s joint military command warned Saturday that “any violation of these regulations will place the security of their passage at serious risk,” and has charged tolls of up to USD 2 million per ship — fees experts say breach the principle of freedom of peaceful navigation.
Qatar’s deputy prime minister Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said Saturday Doha opposes transit fees in principle but considers them “negotiable” if levied temporarily for mine clearance. The US official has previously stated American forces have neither located nor destroyed any mines in the strait, in contrast to US strikes on alleged Iranian naval mines near Bandar Abbas on 26 May.
The Lian Star action follows Trump’s 28 May Truth Social threat to “blow up” anything in the strait and US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Shangri-La Dialogue remarks on Iran-strike readiness earlier the same day.
