Cargo Ship Struck in Strait of Hormuz as Washington and Tehran Give Opposing Accounts of Talks

A cargo ship reported being hit by an unknown projectile in the Strait of Hormuz overnight, hours after Washington and Tehran gave flatly different accounts of whether they are negotiating an end to a war now in its sixth month.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre said it received a broadcast on VHF channel 16 from a vessel reporting it had been struck about 20 nautical miles northeast of Al Khasab, Oman, at 22:00 GMT on Monday. UKMTO did not name the ship and publishes its alerts at ukmto.org and said authorities were investigating. The agency publishes its alerts at ukmto.org.

The maritime security firm Vanguard Tech identified the vessel as the Liberian-flagged bulk carrier Minoan Pioneer. Maritime sources told Reuters the crew abandoned ship and one seafarer was missing. Neither UKMTO nor the ship’s operator has confirmed casualties.

Two accounts of the same talks

President Donald Trump said on Monday that talks between the United States and Iran were under way, and that negotiators could sit down within a day or two. He described it as Iran’s last chance to end the war at the table, and said the strike he called off over the weekend remained available if the talks fail. Trump had called off that strike at the weekend, a decision that sent oil prices down sharply.

Tehran’s account differs, as it has at each previous stage of these talks. Iran says it is talking only to Oman, and that those discussions concern the Strait of Hormuz rather than a broader settlement. The foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Iran had no plans to host foreign delegations or send negotiators abroad in the coming days.

Trump said the two sides were talking whether or not Tehran acknowledged it publicly.

Why the strait is the sticking point

Iran effectively closed the strait to shipping after US and Israeli strikes began on 28 February. Roughly a fifth of the world’s oil supply normally passes through it. Commercial vessels have been struck repeatedly since, and the waterway’s status is one of the central questions in any settlement.

Trump said he called off a major strike on Sunday after Gulf states asked him to hold back.

What we could not confirm

We have not been able to establish who fired on the Minoan Pioneer. No party has claimed the attack, and neither US Central Command nor Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps has commented on it. We have not independently verified the report of a missing crew member, which rests on unnamed maritime sources.