In a letter to the UN Secretary-General, the Security Council president, the head of the International Maritime Organization and the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Ambassador Gholamhossein Darzi said the two vessels, 'Naji-15' and 'Naji-16', were attacked in the early hours of July 23 while conducting exclusively humanitarian search-and-rescue missions in the territorial waters of Hormozgan province. The vessels sustained significant damage, he said.

Darzi said the attack was not an isolated incident. Since the beginning of the U.S. and Israeli military aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran on 28 February 2026, Iranian search-and-rescue vessels and marine ambulances, which have been exclusively engaged in humanitarian and life-saving missions, have been repeatedly attacked, he wrote, describing a disturbing pattern of deliberate attacks on humanitarian assets entitled to special protection under international law.

The ambassador cited Article 27 of the Second Geneva Convention of 1949, which states that small craft used by states or officially recognized lifeboat institutions for coastal rescue operations shall be respected and protected. He said the two Iranian vessels fell under this protection and were not engaged in any military activity at the time of the attack.

The deliberate targeting of vessels exclusively dedicated to maritime search-and-rescue operations constitutes a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and the law of the sea, and amounts to a war crime, Darzi underlined. He said the U.S. action endangered not only rescue personnel but also the safety of all seafarers in need of assistance, regardless of their nationality, and seriously undermined the international legal system established to protect humanitarian operations at sea.

Iran called on the Security Council to explicitly condemn the violation, hold the perpetrators fully accountable, and take effective measures to prevent the recurrence of attacks on humanitarian maritime vessels, equipment and personnel. It also asked the UN Secretary-General to work with the IMO and ICRC to ensure full respect for international humanitarian law.

Darzi stressed that Iran would continue to provide maritime search-and-rescue services safely, continuously and without any discrimination to all persons in distress at sea, and that no act of aggression will prevent the Islamic Republic of Iran from fulfilling its humanitarian responsibilities.