The information was revealed by the Iranian news agency Isna and the national television. An explosion set fire to an oil tanker belonging to the Iranian National Oil Company (NIOC) near the Saudi Arabian port of Jeddah about 100 kilometers from the Saudi coast on Friday (October 11th). The incident then caused an oil spill in the Red Sea, the television said.
All crew members are alive, Iran's Nour said. "No member of the crew was injured in the explosion, the situation is under control," the press agency added, close to the Revolutionary Guards.
For its part, the semi-official ISNA news agency said that the experts on board did not exclude that it was a "terrorist attack". An investigation is underway. Missile strikes could be the cause of the oil tanker explosion, according to the NIOC.
This explosion comes a little less than a month after the September 14 attacks on Saudi oil company Aramco's major sites, claimed by Houthi rebels in Yemen, but blamed by Saudi Arabia and its Western allies on the Islamic Republic Iranian.
With Reuters