IRGC Navy Claims It Struck and Halted Three Tankers in Strait of Hormuz in Statement No. 53

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Kurdistan 24) - Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy claimed on Tuesday that it struck and brought to a halt three tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, saying the vessels had ignored IRGC warnings and continued sailing along what Tehran described as an unsafe and unlawful route, in the 53rd official naval statement issued by the IRGC since the conflict began.

The statement, released by the IRGC Navy Command and reported by Iran's state-affiliated Mehr News Agency, said the three tankers were "accused of violating regulations" before being struck. The IRGC framed the action as an enforcement of its self-declared authority over the strait, warning that what it described as unlawful interference and directives issued by the US military toward vessels in the region "will not go unanswered."

The statement opened with a direct address to the Iranian people, marking what the IRGC described as 150 consecutive days of steadfastness since the conflict began on Feb. 28, 2026. "Praise be to you for giving new meaning to resistance through 150 consecutive days of steadfastness, demonstrating a new level of national awareness and resolve," the statement read, framing the sustained naval campaign in the strait as both a military operation and a source of national pride.

The timing of IRGC Navy Statement No. 53 places Tuesday's tanker strikes within a rapidly escalating 24-hour window of Iranian military activity. Hours before the statement was released, CENTCOM confirmed that IRGC forces had launched multiple ballistic missiles in what it described as an attempted surprise attack on US forces across the Middle East at 5:45 p.m. Eastern Time, with all missiles successfully intercepted. Earlier in the day, CENTCOM and the Saudi Arabian Armed Forces conducted joint precision strikes on Iran-aligned militia targets across eastern Iraq in response to more than 30 IRGC-directed drone attacks in 72 hours against US forces and Saudi energy infrastructure.

The claim that three tankers were struck and halted on Tuesday comes despite a 60-day toll-free period stipulated in the June 17, 2026, memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran, under which Iran had agreed to suspend transit fees during a defined window intended to allow commercial shipping to resume normal operations. Iran's chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf had previously stated on Iranian state television that the Strait of Hormuz "will not return to prewar conditions," and the IRGC's continued interdiction of commercial vessels confirms that Tehran has never fully withdrawn its claim of operational authority over the waterway regardless of the terms of any diplomatic agreement.

The IRGC's assertion of "full control" over the Strait of Hormuz directly contradicts the position of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who stated at the ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in Manila on Wednesday, July 22, 2026, that "international waterways do not belong to any nation state," and who had previously warned that any Iranian tolling or interdiction system in the strait would make a diplomatic deal "unfeasible."

As Kpler data confirmed earlier this month, Saudi Arabia had shipped approximately 34 million barrels of oil through Hormuz between June 17 and July 1, more than double its wartime volumes, as Riyadh cleared a war-era backlog following the signing of the memorandum of understanding. Tuesday's IRGC claim of three additional tankers struck suggests that the partial recovery of commercial shipping traffic through the strait that followed the June 17 agreement is once again under direct threat, with consequences for global oil markets that have already absorbed months of sustained disruption.

The IRGC Navy's invocation of Quranic verse, its address to the Iranian people as witnesses to a historic act of resistance, and its explicit warning to Washington signal that Tehran views its naval campaign in the Strait of Hormuz not as a tactical instrument to be switched on and off in response to diplomatic developments, but as a permanent expression of Iranian sovereignty over one of the world's most strategically vital waterways, one that 150 days of conflict, nine consecutive nights of American airstrikes, and the deaths of thousands have not caused it to abandon.