[1] In early August 2021, the Asphalt Princess was widely reported in the western media as having been hijacked in the Gulf of Oman, 60 nautical miles (110 km; 69 mi) east the port of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates.

On 3 August 2021, four oil tankers called Queen Ematha, Golden Brilliant, Jag Pooja, and Abyss, sailing in the Gulf of Oman, announced around the same time that they were “not under command.

[8] At 04:44 UTC on 4 August, UKMTO released an update declaring the incident a “potential hijacking”, where a group of eight or nine armed individuals were believed to have boarded the vessel without authorisation and ordered the ship to sail to Iran.

[11] At 07:26 UTC on 4 August, Al Jazeera reported on Twitter that the Iranian Armed Forces claimed to be "providing assistance and security for merchant ships" and were ready to send “relief units” to the vessel.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry said on August 3 that the recent maritime attacks in the Persian Gulf were "completely suspicious", while an armed forces spokesman dismissed reports of the incident as "psychological warfare".