New delhi: India on Tuesday summoned Iran's deputy envoy and lodged a protest after one Indian national was killed as two UAE tankers were hit by Iran while transiting the southern shipping lane of the Strait of Hormuz in Omani territorial waters, according to media reports. New Delhi said Iran's deputy chief of mission in New Delhi, Mohamed Javad Hosseini, was summoned on Tuesday morning to lodge a strong protest against these attacks.
According to Anadolu Agency, the Foreign Ministry stated that 30 Indian seafarers were on board the two vessels attacked during their transit through the strategic strait. The ministry expressed strong condemnation of these attacks and acts of violence targeting seafarers, highlighting the disruption of free and safe navigation through international waterways like the Strait of Hormuz.
The statement conveyed India's deep concern over the renewed clashes in the Middle East and called for an immediate cessation of violence and a return to dialogue and diplomacy in the interests of peace, security, and stability in the region. It emphasized that targeting commercial shipping and civilian infrastructure in the region must cease to restore free and unimpeded navigation and commerce through international waterways, in accordance with international law.
Earlier on Tuesday, the UAE Defense Ministry reported that one crew member was killed and eight others were injured, including four seriously, after two United Arab Emirates tankers were struck by Iranian cruise missiles in Omani territorial waters. The deceased was identified as an Indian crew member aboard the Mombasa, with the injured including six Indian nationals and two Ukrainian nationals.
The incident occurred amid escalating military tensions following the US launching a third consecutive day of strikes on Iran, aimed at weakening Tehran's capabilities in the Strait of Hormuz, an area experiencing renewed conflict between the US and Iran. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy accused the US military of encouraging two supertankers to use an unauthorized route in the Strait of Hormuz before they were hit and disabled, although it did not clarify the method of the attack or explicitly claim responsibility for the incident.