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Two U.S.-flagged commercial vessels are stranded in rocky, shallow waters on the southern coast of the Strait of Hormuz near the Musandam region of Oman, Iran's Fars News Agency reported Tuesday.
The claim contradicts Washington’s report that two U.S. merchant ships successfully transited the waterway under Project Freedom just a day earlier.
Citing an informed source, Fars reported that the southern coastal area of the strait near the islands of Musandam and Al Kheil lacks the geographic capacity to function as a maritime corridor and that passage through its rocky, shallow southern sections is "very risky."
"The vessels have no ability to exit or return from the area," the source said.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had also denied that any U.S.-flagged commercial ships had transited the strait within hours of U.S. Central Command's (CENTCOM) Monday announcement, which said that two U.S.-flagged merchant vessels had "successfully transited through the Strait of Hormuz" and were "safely headed on their journey."
Ship-tracking data compiled by Türkiye's state-run Anadolu Agency (AA) as of 9 a.m. Tuesday showed only four commercial vessels moving through the strait in the previous 24 hours, two east to west and two west to east, underscoring the severe constraints still gripping the world's most critical energy corridor.
Eastbound traffic included the Muara, a container ship moored with Jebel Ali in the UAE as its destination, and the Aurora, listed in data as Shimokita Maru, a limestone carrier heading to Umm Qasr in Iraq.
Westbound traffic included the Nooh Gas, an LPG tanker carrying liquefied petroleum gas toward Khor Fakkan in the UAE, and the Pasargad 11, a general cargo ship heading to Port Rashid in the UAE.
The Nooh Gas is listed as a sanctioned vessel under U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control records.
Danish shipping giant Maersk said one of its U.S.-flagged commercial vessels, the Alliance Fairfax, exited the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz under U.S. military protection on May 4, adding that the transit was completed "without incident" and all crew members were safe.
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