India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar spoke to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to express his country's strong protest over the US Navy's attacks on merchant vessels with Indian crew members in the Gulf of Oman. The US attacks resulted in the death of three Indian seafarers, including a 23-year-old deck cadet.
Rubio emphasized that commercial vessels should comply with orders from US forces and that violations of the US blockade of Iranian ports 'will not be tolerated.'
Jaishankar reiterated that 'lethal actions' against commercial shipping are not justified and that merchant vessels should not be targeted. The Indian government has summoned the US chargé d'affaires for the second time in three days to protest against the US attacks.
The US Central Command has stated that it took action to 'disable' three vessels this week because they were trying to violate the US blockade of Iranian ports. However, the vessels were not Indian-flagged, but all had Indian crew members.
