the Iranian side were under way, while the Greek coast guard said it could not immediately confirm the seizure when the first reports emerged.  

The MSC Francesca was also seized, according to Reuters and Lloyd’s List. Lloyd’s List described it as an MSC-owned, 11,312 teu containership built in 2008 and normally deployed between the US west coast, Asia and the Middle East Gulf, while the Epaminondas usually operates on an MSC service from the US east coast to the Middle East Gulf via the Panama Canal.  

Reuters said the Epaminondas was also on charter to MSC.  

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said both ships were operating without the necessary permits, while Reuters reported that Iranian authorities also accused them of tampering with their navigation systems.  

Tasnim said any disruption to order and safety in the strait would be treated as a “red line”, underlining Tehran’s increasingly hard line over traffic through the waterway.  

A third vessel, the Euphoria, was also targeted. Reuters and Lloyd’s List said the Liberia-flagged containership was fired upon in the same area but was not damaged and resumed sailing.

Lloyd’s List said the 2,478 teu vessel is understood to be operated by Dubai-based Silmar Shipping, while Reuters reported that it later reached Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates.

The incidents came after the April 20 seizure by the US Navy of the Iranian-flagged Touska in the Gulf of Oman, further intensifying an already volatile security environment in the strait.  

Reuters said the latest confrontations marked Iran’s first seizures of commercial ships since the conflict with the US and Israel began in February, while traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries about one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas supply, has already fallen sharply as shipping risks deepen.  

Brent crude closed above $100 a barrel on Wednesday for the first time in more than two weeks.  

The White House, meanwhile, said the seizure of the two ships did not amount to a breach of the ceasefire because they were neither American nor Israeli vessels, although it described the move as “piracy”.  

Iran, for its part, has argued that a full ceasefire makes no sense while the US naval blockade remains in place, leaving the status of the truce and the safety of commercial shipping in the strait deeply uncertain.