Exiled prince’s office says security review under way after Berlin incident

At least two sanctioned ships passed through the Strait of Hormuz from Friday night into Saturday morning, according to MarineTraffic data analyzed by NBC News.

One of them, the tanker Ocean Jet, is on the US sanctions list over its alleged role in facilitating and financing the clandestine sale of Iranian drones. Another, the Curacao-flagged Lumina Ocean, has been under US sanctions since December and is classified by Washington as part of Iran’s “shadow fleet” of petroleum tankers.

NBC’s analysis also said an Iranian cargo ship moved through the strait close to Iran’s coastline.

Alongside those vessels, four cargo ships, an Omani passenger ferry and a Russian pleasure yacht were also tracked in the waterway on Friday and Saturday. The Russian yacht, Nord, had left Dubai on Friday and passed through Hormuz on Saturday on a route south of Larak Island.

Iranian media reported that Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi left Islamabad after meeting Pakistani officials.

He is expected to travel next to Oman and Russia.

Iranian officials had earlier said Araghchi had no plan to meet US officials in Pakistan.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday that his priority remained the full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, after TotalEnergies chief Patrick Pouyanne warned that a prolonged Iran war could trigger global energy shortages.

Speaking in Athens alongside Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Macron said the aim was to restore freedom of navigation through the strait in line with international law and without tolls, so that conditions could gradually return to normal in the coming days and weeks.

His remarks came a day after Pouyanne said the world could face energy scarcity if the conflict continued for another two or three months, warning that roughly 20% of global oil and gas supply normally passes through Hormuz and could not be stranded without major consequences.

Macron also said geopolitical panic could itself fuel shortages. More than a dozen countries have said they are ready to join a France- and Britain-led mission to protect shipping in the waterway when conditions allow.

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Germany will soon send a minesweeper to the Mediterranean for a possible future mission in the Strait of Hormuz, German officials said, as Berlin prepares for a potential international operation to protect shipping after the end of the US-Iran war.

Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Germany would dispatch a minesweeper and provide a command-and-support vessel, though he did not specify exactly when the ship would depart. A defense ministry spokeswoman later said the navy’s Fulda would be deployed in the coming days with a crew of about 45.

She said the aim was to make a “significant and visible contribution” to an international coalition seeking to protect freedom of navigation in the strait. Any actual deployment to Hormuz, however, would require a lasting end to hostilities and approval from Germany’s lower house of parliament.

Pistorius had already said about a week ago that Germany was preparing for a possible mission. His comments came after Chancellor Friedrich Merz said such an operation would need a legal basis, such as a UN Security Council resolution, as well as approval from the German government and parliament.

The women – Boshra Mostafavi, Nahid Naimi and Didar Ahmadi – were transferred to Kerman prison after being sentenced by an appeals court in the province. According to information received by Iran International, the judge told them during the proceedings: “You are Baha’i, and in an Islamic country you must pay the price for being Baha’i.”

The three had earlier been acquitted by a criminal court in Rafsanjan for lack of evidence, but that ruling was challenged by the local prosecutor and later overturned.

Mostafavi was transferred to prison while pregnant.