While condemning the recent U.S. attacks on three ships with Indian crew that resulted in the deaths of three Indian seafarers, Esmaeil Baqaei, a spokesperson for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, described them as “attacks on Indian commercial vessels.”

Freely and publicly available information does show that all the three ships, though formally foreign flagged, have deeper Indian connections than just crew onboard, including potentially in ownership and management. Two of the ships were serving Indian ports, facilitating Iranian oil trade with India.

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On Thursday (June 11, 2026), the External Affairs Ministry had said the ships were foreign-flagged and indicated that the deaths of Indians were incidental collateral damage in the ongoing conflict, tamping down any notion of targeting of Indians by the U.S.

On Friday (June 12, 2026), however, for the second time in three days, the Ministry summoned the Charge d’Affaires of the U.S. Embassy Jason Meeks and lodged a “strong protest”. “The Ministry once again conveyed its deep concern over the use of lethal and deadly force against civilian shipping. Such actions are unacceptable and undermine the safety, security and stability of international maritime commerce in a sensitive region at a difficult time,” said the Ministry in a press statement.

The U.S. envoy was called in by Nagaraj Naidu Kakanur, Additional Secretary (Americas) in the Ministry.  

The summoning of Mr. Meeks came hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to take off for France where he is expected to meet U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G-7 summit.

Meanwhile, in a post on Truthsocial, Mr. Trump on Friday (June 12, 2026) accused Iran of carrying out “totally unacceptable” drone attacks on Indian ships “leaving the Strait of Hormuz” that were “rebuffed”, apparently by the U.S. All the three ships were, however, in their return voyage, not leaving the strait.

Following the G-7 summit, India is poised to host the 28th Meeting of the IORA Committee of Senior Officials (CSO) on June 15-16 where the matter of attacks on civilians working on merchant vessels and oil tankers operating in the Indian Ocean are likely to feature. The CSO is the second highest decision-making body of IORA and includes senior government representatives from the member states. 

Strong Indian links

Shipping experts say many Indians own and operate ships catering to India’s oil needs served by Russian and, to a smaller extent, Iranian oil. Since the U.S. has imposed sanctions on the two countries, these ships are registered in countries that are called ‘flags of convenience’ with minimum scrutiny and oversight. Using such flags and frequent changes of names, flags and ownership are a feature of such ships, globally.

Marivex, which was hit by a U.S. missile on Monday (June 8, 2026), is owned by Arihant Shipping, registered in Panama, as per the Equasis database. Opencorporates.com lists six Indian names associated with the company – director, president and so on. Marivex was one of the first ships to transit the Strait of Hormuz when the ceasefire was declared in early April, carrying Iranian oil and was bound for Mangalore. Since then, it has served Karwar, too.

The Settebello, struck on Wednesday, was the ship on which three Indian seafarers died. Owned by a company in UAE, its manager, IOS Marine FZE, had disputed U.S. Centcom’s version that the ship’s crew “repeatedly failed to comply with directions from American sources”, saying no warning or call was received by the ship and no contact whatsoever was made by the U.S. Navy with the ship.

Settebello had been flagged by the United Against Nuclear Iran, a U.S.-based non-profit, which had included it in its ‘Ghost Armada’ list for trading in Iranian oil. The IOS Marine statement says the company had no affiliation with Iran or Iranian oil and sought evidence of U.S.

Meanwhile, Jalveer, the Guinea Bissau-registered ship struck on Thursday (June 11, 2026), has publicly listed a One Person Company in Mumbai as responsible for safety compliance. Its last port of call, as per marinetraffic.com, was Dighi in Maharashtra. A bitumen carrier, its cargo is widely used in road-laying in India.