JAKARTA - The United States Department of Defense (Pentagon) rejected claims by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, regarding their success in thwarting United States efforts to detain tankers carrying Iranian oil in the Sea of Oman.
"I have seen Iran's claims, they are completely false and untrue, they are false claims," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
"The only seizure carried out was by Iran," Kirby added.
US officials say Iranian forces have in fact captured a Vietnamese-flagged oil tanker last month, and US Navy forces are simply monitoring the situation.
"With the timely and authoritative actions of the Guards naval forces, the US terrorist Navy operation to steal Iranian oil in the Sea of Oman failed," Iran's elite Guards Forces claimed in a statement published by Iranian state media earlier on Wednesday.
The tanker carrying Iranian oil is known to have docked at Bandar Abbas Port on October 25.
Meanwhile Iranian media identified the seized tanker as "SOTHYS" the name a tanker tracking website has given to the Vietnamese-flagged vessel.
State TV footage showed a red tanker surrounded by about 10 speedboats. It also included footage of what TV said was a meeting between Iranian and US forces.
Iran has repeatedly warned the United States about its military activities in the Gulf, saying that its naval Guards have stepped up patrols to also secure the passage of Iranian ships and combat fuel smuggling.
Earlier, providing details of the reported incident, Press TV said the Guards had reacted "immediately" when the Iranian oil tanker was detained in the Sea of Oman.
"Members of the Navy's Guards carried out a heliborne operation on the deck of the detained tanker, seized control of the ship, and redirected it to Iran's territorial waters," Press TV reported.
Separately, American officials told Reuters several drones, believed to be Iranian, had approached the US Navy amphibious assault ship Essex in the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours.
The escalating tensions between Tehran and Washington come amid stalled talks about reviving the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, under which Tehran curtailed its uranium enrichment program in exchange for the lifting of global sanctions.
Iran's top security official Ali Shamkhani said on Wednesday talks would fail unless US President Joe Biden could guarantee Washington would not renege on a future nuclear deal.
The deal has eroded since 2018, when then-President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from it and reimposed US sanctions on Iran, prompting Tehran to violate various uranium enrichment limits set by the pact.
Shamkhani tweeted: "The US president, who has no authority, is not ready to give guarantees. If the current status quo continues, the outcome of the negotiations is clear."
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