Earlier today, six Iranian gunboats armed with .50 caliber machine guns approached the American-flagged, Danish-owned oil tanker M/T STENA IMPERATIVE in a threatening manner as it was leaving the United Arab Emirates and heading toward the Naval Support Activity Bahrain in the Persian Gulf. The maritime security firm Vanguard Tech reported that the Iranian gunboats instructed the oil tanker to stop and prepare for boarding by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). In response to this threat, the tanker accelerated and was not pursued further by the gunboats. It later rendezvoused with a U.S. naval vessel, which escorted it safely to Bahrain.

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