Missile strike on Iran tanker keeps heat on

Teheran’s claim of attack could further stoke tensions with US in Gulf region

TEHERAN — Two missiles struck an Iranian tanker traveling through the Red Sea off Saudi Arabia on Friday, Iranian officials said, the latest incident in the Persian Gulf region amid months of heightened tensions between Teheran and Washington.

There was no word from Saudi Arabia on the reported attack and Saudi officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Oil prices spiked by 2 percent on the news.

Iranian state television said the explosion, which could have been the result of a “terrorist attack”, damaged two storerooms aboard the oil tanker and caused an oil leak into the Red Sea near the Saudi port city of Jiddah.

The state-run IRNA news agency said explosions caused serious damage to the vessel and that oil was spilling into the sea.

IRNA, quoting Iran’s National Iranian Tanker Co, identified the stricken vessel as the Sabiti. That vessel last turned on its tracking devices in August near the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas, according to data from MarineTraffic.com. Iranian tankers routinely turn off their trackers as US sanctions target the sale of Iran’s crude oil.

“The oil tanker named Sabiti belonging to the company sustained damages to the body when it was hit by missiles 60 miles (96 kilometers) from the Saudi port city of Jiddah,” IRNA said.

The agency did not say whom Iranian officials suspect of launching the missiles.

The oil tanker is headed toward Iran’s Larak port in the Persian Gulf, Refinitiv shipping data showed on Friday. The status of the ship was “underway using engine” with its destination set as Larak, an island off the Iranian coast, the latest data showed.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said on Friday that Beijing was aware of reports of the incident. “Currently the situation in the Gulf region is highly complicated and sensitive. We hope all related parties will keep calm and practice self-restraint, avoid actions that may further escalate tensions, and work together to maintain peace and stability in the region,” he said.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Friday said it was too early to assign blame for the explosion on the Iranian oil tanker.

Lieutenant Pete Pagano, a spokesman for the US Navy’s 5th Fleet overseeing the Middle East, said authorities there were also aware of the reports, but declined to comment further.

The price of benchmark Brent crude oil rose more than 2 percent in trading on Friday to reach $60.40 a barrel.

The reported attack follows United States allegations that Iran over recent months has attacked oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. Teheran denied the accusations.

Friday’s incident could push tensions between Iran and the US even higher, more than a year after US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from a deal aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear program and imposed sanctions that are crushing Iran’s economy.

The mysterious attacks on oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s shooting down of a US military surveillance drone and other incidents across the wider Middle East followed Trump’s decision.

The most high-profile assault saw Saudi Arabia’s vital oil industry come under a drone-and-cruise-missile attack, halving the kingdom’s output. The US blamed Iran for the attack, something denied by Teheran. Yemen’s Houthi rebels, whom Saudi Arabia is fighting in a yearslong war, claimed responsibility for that assault.

The US has since formed a naval coalition to escort commercial vessels through the strategic strait.

It has been joined by Australia, Bahrain, Britain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.