South Korea vows response to attack on cargo ship

IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News reported on Monday that a VLCC tanker carrying Iraqi crude crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday using a route designated by Iran’s armed forces.

It identified the tanker as the Agios Fanourios I and said it had left the strait and was now in the Gulf of Oman before heading to Vietnam’s Nghi Son port.

Reuters reported that the crossing came after reports that the tanker had switched off its trackers to avoid Iranian attacks.

US House Representative Brian Mast said Iran was already on “life support” economically and had no choice but to come to the negotiating table, citing pressure from US President Donald Trump and damage to Tehran’s military capabilities.

The Republican representative and foreign affairs committee chairman told Fox News that the US had already “degraded their missile systems, their proxy programs, their nuclear capabilities, and their drone programs.”

“We can never trust them because that's something that has been totally eroded for the last 47 years,” he added.

A UAE state-owned oil supertanker was struck by Iranian drones on May 4 after conducting an oil transfer east of the UAE, TankerTrackers.com said on Monday.

The ship-tracking group identified the vessel as the VLCC Barakah, owned by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, and said it was empty of oil cargo when it was hit while heading west.

Iran executed Erfan Shakourzadeh on Monday on accusations of cooperation with the CIA and Mossad, the judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported.

Mizan accused Shakourzadeh of sharing classified scientific information with foreign intelligence services while working with an Iranian scientific organization.

The judiciary-linked outlet claimed he had contacted foreign intelligence services in three stages, two linked to Mossad and one to the CIA.

Ther report did not provide any evidence for the allegations.

Shakourzadeh was arrested by Islamic Revolutionary Guards in 2025 on accusations of “espionage and cooperation with hostile countries” and sentenced to death.

The editor-in-chief of Iran’s hardline Kayhan newspaper said on Monday that Iran’s armed forces could attack British and French naval vessels over what he called cooperation with the US and Israel.

“The French and British armies have formally announced that they crossed the Suez Canal and entered Red Sea waters to cooperate with the US and Israel. Therefore, attacking these vessels is our natural and recognized right and can be defined within the framework of legal defense,” Hossein Shariatmadari wrote.

He added that the vessels were within range of Iran’s long-range missiles and that Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen had missile dominance over the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab.

“Yemen’s resistance forces have also eagerly declared their readiness to carry out this divine mission,” he said.