Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said one of the tankers in the Islamic republic was attacked. According to the diplomat, the ship was hit twice.
"An audit conducted by the national tanker company of Iran shows that the Iranian tanker ... was attacked twice with a difference of about 30 minutes and was damaged," he said.
Who is behind the attack is not reported. Iran continues to study the circumstances of the incident and conduct an investigation, Mousavi emphasized.
On the morning of October 11, media reported that an explosion occurred on an Iranian tanker in the Red Sea. According to ISNA, the vessel at that time was not far from the Saudi port of Jeddah.
According to the agency, the tanker is owned by the National Iranian Oil Company, 100% of which is owned by Tehran. It ranks third in the world among oil and gas companies, second only to Saudi Saudi Aramco and Russian Gazprom.
No one was injured in the explosion, ISNA reported. However, according to the agency, two tanks of the vessel were damaged, as a result of which oil spilled into the Red Sea.
Tasnim, referring to the press service of the company owner of the vessel, reported that there was no fire on board. The agency noted that it was probably a Sabity tanker. There were two explosions - probably their cause was a missile strike, Tasnim suggested.
This incident will exacerbate the problematic situation in the Persian Gulf, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.
“This will only add tension, which is already superfluous in this region,” said Zamir Kabulov, special representative of the Russian president for Afghanistan, director of the Second Department of Asia of the Foreign Ministry.
The situation remains difficult, and therefore it is important that all countries show restraint, noted in the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
“We noticed the relevant messages. Currently, the situation in the Persian Gulf region remains difficult and sensitive, we hope that all parties will be able to exercise restraint, ”said official spokesman Geng Shuang.
The attack on the tanker indicates the continuation of the anti-Iranian campaign in the region, said Boris Dolgov, a leading researcher at the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
“The attack can be connected with the general thrust of the anti-Iranian campaign and with what is happening now regarding the possible start of hostilities in the Persian Gulf. It is up to the competent authorities to find out if it was an explosion or the actions of a terrorist group, or a missile strike, or an attack using drones, ”he told RT.
- Iranian Army Soldiers
- Reuters
- © Caren Firouz
“We are witnessing a gradual escalation”
Recall that in the summer and early autumn, several incidents related to oil supplies occurred in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz. So, in June two assailants attacked two ships in the Gulf of Oman. Iranian emergency services rescued 44 sailors. The United States, Britain and Saudi Arabia accused Iran of attack. Tehran categorically denies any involvement.
On July 10, the British government accused the Islamic Republic of trying to block the passage of their tanker through the Persian Gulf.
Later that month, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), an elite division of the Iranian army, detained two British tankers. Subsequently, one was released, and Stena Impero was escorted to the Iranian city of Bandar Abbas. He left the territorial waters of the Islamic Republic only at the end of September.
And on September 14, drones attacked two Saudi Aramco refineries. The United States, Britain, and Saudi Arabia again blamed Iran for this incident, despite the fact that the Hussite rebels took responsibility for what happened.
All this is also accompanied by tougher anti-Iranian sanctions by the United States. The attack on the tanker also fits into the escalation course that the United States is now following, said a corresponding member of the Academy of Military Sciences, political analyst Sergei Sudakov.
“I believe that we are witnessing a gradual escalation of the conflict that Trump spawned from the nuclear deal with Iran,” he told RT. “I believe that perhaps these were acts of some kind of retaliation for Iran and also consider the scenario that it was a specially organized provocation to aggravate the situation in the region.”
The Joint Comprehensive Action Plan for the Iranian Nuclear Program (JCPOA) was concluded between Iran on the one hand and Russia, China, the USA, France, Great Britain and Germany on the other in 2015.
However, in 2018, Washington announced its withdrawal from the transaction. According to the American side, Tehran violates its terms, although this information was not confirmed by the IAEA. The actions of the United States condemned the rest of the parties to the transaction, including European countries.