President Donald Trump on Thursday accused Iran of inventing attacks on commercial shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz, in a direct rebuttal to claims by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy that seven vessels had been struck overnight. "Iran is doing everything they can to drive up the price of Oil prior to the U.S. Midterm Election," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "They are even making up fake hits, mines, and everything else, because more Oil is coming through the Hormuz Strait now than it did even prior to the beginning of the Conflict."
The IRGC Navy said on Thursday that four vessels involved in what it called illegal ship-to-ship oil transfers in the northern Persian Gulf were simultaneously hit on Wednesday and caught fire after being tracked by its forces. It said three more vessels collided with naval mines west of the Strait of Hormuz, caught fire and were left disabled, and it warned the U.S. military that continued provocations could lead to a wider response against its regional bases. The IRGC said the four transfer vessels had been using routes Iran has declared prohibited and accused the U.S. military of encouraging ships to cross mined routes.
None of the seven incidents has been independently confirmed. Iran did not identify the ships, their owners or the American company it said the oil was being transferred for, and there were no immediate details of casualties or oil spills. UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), which tracks attacks on commercial shipping in the region, issued no new incident reports corresponding to the claims. A U.S. Central Command spokesperson, speaking to Al Jazeera, called Iran's mine claims incorrect and said U.S. forces have cleared the international shipping lanes of mines, while Iran is using missiles and drones.
The claims are the latest in a series of IRGC announcements in recent weeks alleging that merchant vessels using routes outside Tehran's control have struck mines or been hit. Those announcements have repeatedly been challenged: in an October 18 advisory, the Joint Maritime Information Center said there was "no substantiation" to Iran's claim a day earlier that two supertankers had struck mines, and Central Command has previously accused the IRGC of spreading disinformation to intimidate commercial shipping. At the same time, UKMTO said in its October 16 assessment that the majority of vessels being attacked are not reporting incidents to it, making the true number of attacks difficult to establish; it documented 12 attacks in the period ending October 16, 10 of them in the Strait of Hormuz, with one vessel lost, and it continues to rate the threat level in the strait as severe.
Oil prices rose as the claims circulated, with Brent crude climbing nearly 3 percent to about $112 a barrel on Thursday. Trump's statement that more oil is moving through Hormuz than before the conflict is disputed by shipping data: overall Middle East oil shipments have approached or exceeded prewar levels in recent weeks — regional shipments averaged more than 24 million barrels a day in the past week, according to Kpler data cited by The Wall Street Journal — helped by pipelines, short tanker voyages and offshore transfers conducted with U.S. military assistance. But flows through the strait itself, including offshore transfers, remained at approximately 82 percent of prewar levels, and UKMTO recorded just 254 vessel transits in the seven days ending October 14, about 70 percent below pre-conflict levels. The International Energy Agency reported on Wednesday that tanker freight costs from the Gulf to Asia had climbed above $37 a barrel, more than five times prewar levels.
In the same Truth Social post, Trump turned to Iran's leadership, calling it "an Evil Regime" and saying it continues to kill protesters. "75,000 protestors lie dead in less than seven months," he wrote — a figure that has not been independently verified — adding: "It is shocking how the World, and the Dumocrat Party, seem not to care." He closed with his administration's central demand on Tehran: "IRAN CAN NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON, AND THEY WILL NEVER [HAVE] A NUCLEAR WEAPON!"
The exchange comes as the IRGC has warned it could strike U.S. bases across the region if Washington continues guiding merchant ships through the strait, and as diplomacy continues in parallel. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters that "no commercial ships should be attacked" and called for diplomacy to reopen the strait and lower tensions. Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said on Wednesday that Tehran remains open to diplomacy but is ready to defend itself, and mediators are working to bring Washington and Tehran back to formal talks. Iran continues to promote a proposal to end the war and fully open the strait within a week if the United States meets several conditions, including ending the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports.