Hijackers left oil tanker in Gulf of Oman; Details surrounding episode remain unclear

Most recently, the US, the UK and Israel have blamed Iran for a drone attack on an oil tanker off the coast of Oman that killed two people.

Iran has denied involvement.

The event unfolded amid heightened tensions between Iran and the West over Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal with world powers and as commercial shipping in the region has found itself caught in the crosshairs.

On Wednesday, the British military’s the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations warned of a “potential hijack” under unclear circumstances underway the night before.

The group reported that the “incident [is] complete.” It did not provide further details.

According to an International news agency, which quoted two security maritime sources, Iranian-backed forces were believed to have seized the tanker.

The event unfolded amid heightened tensions between Iran and the West over Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal with world powers and as commercial shipping in the region has found itself caught in the crosshairs.

Abolfazl Shekarchi, Iran’s senior armed forces spokesman, denounced reports of maritime incidents and hijacking in the Gulf area as “a kind of psychological warfare and setting the stage for new bouts of adventurism,”

Apparently responding to the incident, Iran’s state-run news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh as calling the recent maritime attacks in the region “completely suspicious.” He denied that Iran was involved.

“Iran’s naval forces are ready for help and rescue in the region,” Khatibzadeh said.

The United States stopped short of assigning blame for the latest episode but State Department spokesman Ned Price said there has been “a very disturbing pattern of belligerence from Iran.”

“When it comes to this specific incident, it’s too early for us to offer a judgment just yet,” Price told.

The event comes just days after a drone struck an oil tanker linked to an Israeli billionaire off the coast of Oman, killing two crew members.

The West blamed Iran for the attack, which marked the first known assault to have killed civilians in the yearslong shadow war targeting commercial vessels in the region.

The Gulf of Oman is near the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil passes. Fujairah, on the UAE’s eastern coast, is a main port in the region for ships to take on new oil cargo, pick up supplies or trade out the crew.

Background

Two officials—a Briton and a Romanian were killed when an Israeli-managed petroleum product tanker came under attack off the coast of Oman, in an incident, that Israel's foreign minister blamed on Iran and said warranted a punitive response.

There were varying clarifications for what happened on Thursday to the Mercer Street, a Liberian-flagged, Japanese-owned ship, with Israeli-owned Zodiac Maritime describing the incident as "suspected piracy" and a source at the Oman Maritime Security Center as an accident that occurred outside Omani territorial waters.

Iran and Israel have traded blame for attacking each other's vessels in recent months and Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said he had told Britain's foreign secretary of the need for a tough response to the incident in which two crew members, one British and the other Romanian, were killed.

"Iran is not just an Israeli problem, but an exporter of terrorism, destruction and instability that harms us all. The world must not be silent in the face of Iranian terrorism that also harms freedom of shipping," Mr Lapid said in a statement.

US and European sources familiar with intelligence reporting said Iran was their leading suspect for the incident, which a US defence official said appeared to have been carried out by a drone, but stressed their governments were seeking conclusive evidence.

The Iranian government's Arabic-language television network mentioned anonymous sources as saying the attack on the ship came in response to a suspected, unspecified Israeli attack on Dabaa airport in Syria.

The Israeli news website said the assessment in Israel was that there were two attacks on the ship, spaced several hours apart.

The first caused no damage, and the second hit the bridge, causing the casualties.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, which provides maritime security information, said the attack was not piracy.

The vessel was about 280 km northeast of the Omani port of Duqm when it was attacked, it said.

According to a ship-tracking, the medium-size tanker was headed for Fujairah, a bunkering port and oil terminal in the United Arab Emirates, from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.