Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) navy said two oil tankers, including a supertanker, struck mines and exploded in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday evening local time. The claim, reported by Iranian state media, came as Iran’s foreign minister outlined a two-day plan that he said could reopen the waterway and restart negotiations with Washington.

According to the IRGC, the vessels had switched off their navigation systems and were attempting a covert, unauthorised transit along a route Tehran had not approved, with US military support. The mine strikes forced the tankers to stop, the IRGC said. The account of US involvement has not been independently verified.

Initial reports did not identify the tankers or provide their flags, cargoes or the condition of their crews. Independent confirmation of the mine strikes was also not immediately available.

The reported incident adds to concerns about the physical risk facing vessels transiting Hormuz. Iran has restricted passage through the strait and attacked ships it says have breached those rules, seeking to assert control over one of the world’s most important energy chokepoints and increase pressure on the United States.

The possibility that mines have disabled tankers, including a supertanker, raises the perceived risk for every vessel using the waterway, not only those specifically targeted by Iran. That risk could affect freight rates, war-risk insurance premiums and the geopolitical premium in crude oil.

On the diplomatic track, Iran’s foreign minister said that mediation talks in Qatar and Pakistan had produced a sequenced proposal. Under the plan, the US would implement a package of compliance measures on the first day. The Strait of Hormuz would then be reopened and shipping restored on the second day.

The minister said that any resumption of Iran-US negotiations would depend on Washington fulfilling its commitments. Iran listed those conditions as an agreement on new navigation routes through the strait, the unfreezing of Iranian assets, an end to regional conflicts including in Lebanon, the lifting of maritime blockades, exemptions for Iranian oil exports and the removal of US sanctions imposed after the Islamabad memorandum.

The proposal offers a stated path toward restoring shipping, but its conditions extend well beyond maritime navigation to sanctions, frozen funds and wider regional conflicts. That breadth could make rapid US acceptance difficult and may lead traders to view the plan as a negotiating position rather than an immediate solution for supply disruptions.

The demand for new navigation routes would also formalise the type of Iranian-approved passage that the IRGC said the two tankers had avoided. Until the mine-strike claim is independently confirmed and Washington responds to Tehran’s proposal, the risk of further disruption to oil flows remains more immediate than the prospect of relief. Attention will focus on confirmation of the incident, details of the vessels involved and the US response to the two-day reopening plan.