This undated photo issued on July 19, 2019, by Stena Bulk, shows the British oil tanker Stena Impero at unknown location, which is believed to have been captured by Iran. Tensions have spiked in the strait again in the past few days after Iran said it had seized another Panamanian flagged tanker on Thursday accused of oil smuggling and the U.S. said it had destroyed an Iranian drone that approached ones of its warships. Iran has denied any of its drones were destroyed.
President Donald Trump said Thursday that the U.S. would be speaking to British officials about the situation and noted that the U.S. doesn’t have many tankers passing through the area.
"We heard that,” Trump told reporters as he departed the White House en route to New Jersey. "The United States has very few tankers going in because we're using our own energy now. We've made a lot of progress over the last two and a half years. So we don't have very many tankers going in, but we have a lot of ships there that are warships, and we'll talk to the U.K."
The government did say a U.S.-flagged ship, the Maersk Chicago, was traveling through the Strait of Hormuz late Friday and was being monitored.
"We have patrol aircraft operating in international airspace monitoring the situation within the Strait of Hormuz," said Lt. Col. Earl Brown, CENTCOM Chief of Media Operations. "U.S. Naval Forces Central Command has been in contact with U.S. ships operating in the area to ensure their safety."
(MORE: US Navy searching for missing USS Abraham Lincoln sailor in Arabian Sea) The president noted multiple times that the U.S. and U.K. don’t have a “written agreement,” but that the two countries were strong allies and that "they’ll have a new prime minister soon, which is a good thing."
Later, he said that Iran was “trouble, nothing but trouble.”
The White House National Security Council spokesperson Garrett Marquis said the council is aware of the reports of the tanker's seizure.
"We are aware of reports that Iranian boats seized a British oil tanker," he said. "This is the second time in just over a week the U.K. has been the target of escalatory violence by the Iranian regime. The U.S. will continue to work with our allies and partners to defend our security and interests against Iran’s malign behavior."
ABC News' Elizabeth McLaughlin and Cindy Smith contributed to this report.
Kaynak:Abcnews