The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy announced that a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carrier traveling along an unauthorized route suffered a massive explosion after striking a naval mine east of the Strait of Hormuz. In a Friday statement, the IRGC Navy noted that the carrier ignored repeated warnings before the explosion. It added that the vessel failed to “learn from the fate of previously destroyed oil tankers” and chose to rely on the support of US fighter jets to exit the waterway.
It said the vessel failed to realize that naval mines do not coordinate with "the US army of smugglers and aggressors when hunting their targets." The IRGC Navy further stated that the Strait of Hormuz is being managed with the supervision of Iranian forces, adding that any vessel attempting to violate Iranian sovereignty over the strait and ignore warnings issued by the IRGC Navy’s Strait of Hormuz traffic control center by entering unauthorized routes would "meet the same fate as previous vessels."
On Thursday, two other oil tankers violating the regulations also caught fire while attempting to take the illegal route and exit the strait with their radar systems switched off. The offending vessels struck naval mines despite repeated warnings. The IRGC has repeatedly stated that the unauthorized route near Omani waters is unsafe and that vessels risk striking naval mines while passing through it. The route has been encouraged by the US, which has claimed that it is safe.
Iran imposed restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz on February 28, following the US-Israeli attacks on the country. Since then, the strategic waterway has been managed under the control of Iranian naval forces. Tehran has made clear that the restrictions will remain in place until its demands, including the lifting of the US blockade on Iranian ports, are met.
Press TV reports an IRGC Navy statement that an LPG carrier hit a naval mine east of the Strait of Hormuz, and it attributes most of that account to the IRGC. When it turns to Thursday's two tankers, it drops the attribution and calls the route illegal and the ships violating and offending in its own voice. Its own S8 and S9 show that the status of the route is disputed between the IRGC and the US.
States one side's claim as fact
Serious
“two other oil tankers violating the regulations also caught fire while attempting to take the illegal route”
Why this matters
Press TV says in its own voice that the tankers were "violating the regulations" and on "the illegal route", with no attribution.
The impression it gives
The reader takes it as settled that the route is illegal and that the tankers broke established rules.
The context
That the route is unauthorised is the IRGC's position. The article itself says the US encourages the route and calls it safe. The IRGC's own statement, as Times of Israel reported it, describes the episode as an "accident" on a route the IRGC calls prohibited. The outlet attributed the same wording to the IRGC in S1 to S5 and then dropped the attribution here.
How we know
Elsewhere in the article“The IRGC has repeatedly stated that the unauthorized route near Omani waters is unsafe”
Elsewhere in the article“The route has been encouraged by the US, which has claimed that it is safe.”
Press TV calls the two tankers "offending vessels" in its own narration.
The impression it gives
The reader takes the ships' wrongdoing as an established fact, not as one party's charge.
The context
The only source for the charge is the IRGC Navy, whose statement the article otherwise attributes. The US position given in S9 is that the route is safe, so the charge is contested.
How we know
Elsewhere in the article“the IRGC Navy noted that the carrier ignored repeated warnings”
Elsewhere in the article“which has claimed that it is safe”
On Thursday, the IRGC Navy said, two other oil tankers it accused of breaking its regulations caught fire after striking naval mines on a route the IRGC says is unauthorised and the US says is safe.