The Gulf of Oman has recently turned into a volatile zone of maritime conflict. In recent days, the United States military carried out attacks on three civilian commercial tankers: the MT Marivex, the MT Settebello, and the MT Jalveer. While these ships operated under foreign flags, they were all manned by Indian crews. The MT Jalveer is a bitumen tanker flagged under Guinea-Bissau, whereas both the MT Marivex and the MT Settebello operated under the flag of Palau.

Emergency operations successfully rescued the crew members from both the MT Marivex and the MT Jalveer. However, the American strike on the MT Settebello took a tragic turn, resulting in the direct deaths of three Indian crew members.

In response to these lethal actions, New Delhi has lodged a powerful and official protest against the United States for targeting commercial vessels operating in the Gulf of Oman. Demonstrating the gravity of the situation, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) summoned the US Chargé d’Affaires, Jason Meeks, on two separate occasions. During these diplomatic confrontations, the ministry demanded an immediate halt to these military actions and called for the urgent restoration of peace in the region.

The diplomatic pressure escalated further when India's External Affairs Minister, Dr. S. Jaishankar, personally intervened. On June 12, Minister Jaishankar shared an official update stating that he had held a direct and serious telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to address the crisis.

“Spoke to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio this evening. I reiterated India’s strong protest at the attacks by the US Navy in the Gulf that killed three Indian mariners. Such lethal actions against commercial shipping are not justified”

US Attributes Maritime Confrontations to Iranian Forces as Tehran Rejects Allegations

Faced with international condemnation for launching military strikes on civilian commercial vessels and causing the deaths of innocent mariners belonging to a friendly partner nation, the United States government quickly pivoted into an aggressive damage control mode.

In a sudden shift of narrative, the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) and US President Donald Trump issued public statements claiming that Iran had deployed unmanned aerial vehicles to strike vessels. According to their account, ships transiting the crucial Strait of Hormuz were targeted by Iranian one-way attack drones, and these hostile actions were successfully countered by American military forces.

CENTCOM released an official statement on the matter to detail their military response:

“Iran launched multiple one-way attack drones in an attempt to strike commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. forces have downed all of them in recent hours as traffic flow through the strait continues unimpeded. The international trade corridor remains open for transit,”

President Trump extended this narrative even further by explicitly asserting through a public post on his Truth Social platform that Iran had specifically dispatched these attack drones to target what he labeled as "Indian ships."

This public posturing represents an effort by the United States to frame itself as a stabilizing peacekeeper within the Strait of Hormuz and the wider Middle Eastern waters. This defense stands in sharp contrast to the documented reality that the US operated as the primary aggressor in the specific incidents that damaged commercial vessels and killed civilian sailors over the preceding days.

Tehran Issues Firm Denial Rejecting American Accounts of Drone Threats

The Islamic Republic of Iran reacted swiftly and firmly to the assertions made by the US President, completely denying that any drone operations had been directed at Indian vessels.

The Iranian consulate in India published a direct rebuttal, sharing the official stance of the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baqaei. The statement firmly reiterated Tehran's condemnation of the American military strikes against merchant shipping, framing the White House's statements as a transparent geopolitical distraction:

“The U.S. president’s accusation against Iran regarding an Indian vessel in the Strait of Hormuz is simply baseless. It is an attempt to divert public attention from the brutal fact that the U.S. has attacked 3 Indian vessels in less than a week and killed 3 innocent Indian sailors. That’s pathetic,”

The diplomatic rhetoric from Tehran emphasizes that the American claims regarding Iranian drones are nothing more than a desperate diversion tactic designed to shift global focus away from the reality of three separate American strikes on Indian-crewed tankers within a single week.

Regional Instability Deepens Amid Confirmed Use of Precision Weaponry

The security environment spanning the Strait of Hormuz and the broader West Asian waters remains deeply unstable. By launching fatal strikes against commercial tankers and killing Indian merchant mariners, the United States has demonstrated a severe lack of caution and a flagrant disregard for established International Maritime Laws. Throughout this escalation, India has consistently maintained its traditional neutral diplomatic stance regarding the broader regional war while repeatedly calling for a peaceful, negotiated resolution to the hostilities.

The underlying facts of the initial attacks remain clear and verified. The US military strikes on the three commercial merchant vessels are fully confirmed and acknowledged. Investigating authorities established that the US forces utilized high-precision weaponry, including Hellfire missiles, directing them specifically into the engine rooms of the tankers to disable the vessels.

While intelligence reports indicate that Iranian drone assets have indeed been active throughout the wider region, the specific timing, presentation, and context of the American counterclaims raise significant doubts. The assertion that US forces suddenly had to intercept Iranian drones aimed directly at Indian ships in the Strait of Hormuz relies on highly vague allegations. These claims appear timed primarily to deflect accountability from the core diplomatic crisis.

Ultimately, a glaring contradiction remains: after launching missile strikes on civilian commercial vessels in the Gulf of Oman—entirely outside the Strait of Hormuz—and killing innocent seafarers from a friendly, non-aligned nation that has no active part in the conflict, the United States is actively trying to rewrite the narrative to suggest that Iranian drones are the primary source of danger for commercial shipping.