IRGC says it stopped four vessels in the Strait of Hormuz

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) naval force said on Saturday, 18 July 2026, that it had stopped four vessels attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz without authorization and despite warnings. According to the IRGC statement, the ships were halted during a naval operation, and one of them was a Thai-flagged merchant vessel. The IRGC did not disclose the ships' identity, ownership, or cargo.

The interception comes amid weeks of tension over control of the Strait of Hormuz, the main export route for Persian Gulf oil, and could add further pressure on tanker traffic and global oil prices. The report is an official IRGC claim, and so far no further independent detail on the vessels' current status has been released.