External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has escalated India's diplomatic response by directly speaking to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to protest the deadly attacks on Indian seafarers. As reported by Business Standard, Jaishankar spoke to Rubio this evening and reiterated India's strong protest at the attacks by the US Navy in the Gulf that killed three Indian mariners. The Minister stated that 'such lethal actions against commercial shipping are not justified' in his social media post on X. This represents a significant escalation from the previous diplomatic protests, with India now engaging directly with the highest levels of the US administration to address the mounting casualties among Indian maritime personnel. India has also summoned the Charge d'Affaires of the US Embassy in New Delhi to lodge its formal protest on the matter, as reported by NDTV.
The Ministry of External Affairs has issued a strong clarification dismissing false reports of a fresh attack on the vessel Liaki Freedom. According to Business Standard, MEA flagged the previous inputs as false reports and said, 'We have spoken with the Master of the vessel Liaki Freedom, who has confirmed that all crew members are safe and that the reported information is false'. The clarification comes after falsely reported that several media outlets that Indians had been killed in an overnight attack on the vessel Liaki Freedom, off Oman. According to vesseltracker.com, Liaki Freedom is a Marshall Islands-flagged tankship, and the MEA has warned people to stay alert against such false and baseless claims on social media. This development adds another layer of complexity to the ongoing diplomatic tensions over maritime security incidents in the Gulf region.
The United States Central Command has officially confirmed the third vessel incident this week, with MT Jalveer being struck by US forces for attempting to transport oil from Iran through the Gulf of Oman. According to CENTCOM's social media post on X, US forces disabled the Guinea-Bissau flagged vessel at 11:20 p.m. ET on June 10 after the crew repeatedly failed to comply with directions. The incident marks the third commercial ship disabled by American forces this week, following attacks on MT Marivex and M/T Settebello on Monday and Tuesday respectively. The latest strike involved two Hellfire missiles fired into the ship's engine room, as reported by CENTCOM.
The vessel involved in the latest incident was identified as MT Jalveer, a Guinea-Bissau flagged vessel that caught fire off Shinas port. As reported by The Times of India, 20 Indian crew members were on board the vessel. According to Iran's Mehr news agency, five of the 20 crew members were rescued by passing vessels and taken to Oman. The Indian embassy in Oman has confirmed that evacuation of the remaining crew to Shinas port is being coordinated with assistance from the Royal Navy of Oman and will soon be completed. The incident marks the second maritime attack involving Indian sailors in two days, following the attack on MT Marivex and Settebello, both of which had Indian seafarers on board. The Guinea-Bissau flagged Jalveer sent a distress call while off Oman's port of Shinas after a fire broke out around its engine room and funnel, as reported by Vanguard, a British maritime risk management company.
Indian Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal confirmed that three Indian seafarers initially reported missing on Settebello are now confirmed dead after bodies were located and identified. As reported by Business Standard, this brings the total number of Indian seafarer casualties to six across all three incidents this week. The minister expressed sadness over the developments affecting Indian maritime personnel. The latest strike on MT Jalveer resulted in additional casualties among the Indian crew members, though specific details are still being confirmed. Three Indian sailors died in a US strike on the Settebello tanker off Oman a day earlier, as reported by Business Standard. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the attack on MT Settebello, with spokesperson Stephane Dujarric stating that 'the Settebello tanker was hit and a number of Indian seafarers were killed' and was 'clearly condemned by the Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organisation'. IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez expressed 'deep sadness' and 'strong condemnation' of the attack, calling it 'simply unacceptable' and emphasizing that 'all actions affecting international shipping must fully respect international law and the safety of life at sea'.
The diplomatic protests come at a critical time, days before a likely meeting between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trump on the sidelines of the Group of 7 summit in France. As reported by Business Standard, the killing of Indian sailors comes during a period when the strong ties between the two countries have come under pressure during President Trump's second term, battered by Washington's tariffs and engagement with New Delhi's rivals Pakistan and China. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei criticised the US attacks, saying such actions 'threaten global peace and security' and 'stand as clear evidence of America's ongoing policy of armed robbery and state piracy'. Iran extended 'sincere condolences to the Indian people and government' and appealed to the international community to hold the US accountable. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi criticized Prime Minister Modi's silence on the matter, stating that 'when any foreign power murders an Indian, the prime minister has to speak up' but 'he can never utter even one word'. At the MEA's briefing, officials confirmed that two of the three vessels were subject to sanctions administered by the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), while another had been classified as non-compliant.
