Three Tankers Hit Near Hormuz Ahead of Trump, Xi and Putin Talks in Shenzhen
Key Facts
The Associated Press, citing Iranian television, reported that 3 oil tankers were hit by mines and caught fire near the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, November 14, in an incident that highlighted the risks facing shipping through the passage. Two strikes occurred inside the strait and the third to its east, according to the report. No details were given about the tankers’ nationalities, destinations or casualties. The reports came as the United States, Russia and China prepare for a leaders-level meeting in Shenzhen the following week. A senior U.S. official said President Donald Trump plans to discuss the Iran war with Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, as the crisis’s diplomatic and maritime tracks converge.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and navy warned ships using routes through the strait without Tehran’s approval that they could face a similar fate, according to the Associated Press. The warning follows October’s record for the highest number of incidents involving commercial vessels in disputed waters since the war began. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations recorded 39 reported maritime incidents during October, its highest monthly figure since the conflict erupted. This coincided with a decline in transits: the agency recorded 139 outbound voyages and 169 inbound voyages during the seven days ended November 13. The figures in the previous week were 170 outbound voyages and 155 inbound voyages, while overall traffic remained about 65% below pre-conflict levels.
Disruptions to shipping matter because of the strait’s role in energy trade. An average of about 20 million barrels a day of crude oil and petroleum products passed through it in 2025, equivalent to around 25% of global seaborne oil trade, according to the International Energy Agency. In a statement on supply disruptions, the agency said crude and refined-product exports through the strait had fallen to less than 10% of pre-conflict levels. The available information did not give a figure for the movement in oil prices after the tankers were hit. On the diplomatic track, Qatar continues to negotiate a temporary agreement aimed at restoring shipping, according to the Associated Press. Two regional diplomats told the agency that a post by Trump on Thursday saying Washington did not need an agreement with Iran created uncertainty about mediation efforts.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said Washington asked its allies to help protect shipping, but received no response from his Group of Seven counterparts during talks in Paris. The Associated Press quoted him as saying: "I raised it, and I didn’t get a response." The agency said U.S. allies, including France, made the provision of minesweepers and other assistance conditional on a halt to the fighting. Describing Washington’s position, Rubio said the "pressure and destruction" carried out by the Trump administration were "getting such good results that the president doesn’t actually need to conduct major combat operations." In May, the White House said Trump and Xi had agreed that Iran should not possess a nuclear weapon, and called for the strait to be reopened and for transit fees to be rejected.
Trump, Xi and Putin are scheduled to meet on Thursday in Shenzhen on the sidelines of the APEC summit, which brings together 21 economies in the city. The APEC forum scheduled the economic leaders’ meeting for November 18 and 19 as part of Leaders’ Week 2026. The Associated Press said nuclear disarmament talks would be raised as the start of a future discussion, and no agreements are expected to be announced at the meeting. Discussions on arms control come after the New START treaty between the United States and Russia expired in February 2026, ending limits on the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals for the first time in more than half a century. According to Pentagon estimates cited in the report, China’s arsenal includes more than 600 nuclear warheads, compared with more than 5,000 in each of the U.S. and Russian arsenals.