A ship anchored off the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was seized and taken toward Iran and another — a cargo ship near Oman — sank after being attacked, authorities said on Thursday, as tensions escalated near the Strait of Hormuz.
It was not immediately clear who was behind these incidents, but they happened as a senior Iranian official reiterated his country’s claim of control over the waterway and another said it had a right to seize oil tankers connected to the US.
The turmoil in the strait has been a sticking point for weeks in talks between the US and Iran to end the conflict. Iran’s grip on the vital waterway has jolted the world economy and spiked fuel prices far beyond the Middle East.
Photo: Reuters
The ongoing instability in the region came as US President Donald Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Beijing. The White House said both sides had agreed that the Strait of Hormuz must remain open.
Just last week, tensions flared in the strait when US forces fired on and disabled Iranian oil tankers that they said were trying to breach its blockade of Iran’s ports.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations center said it received reports that the ship seized on Thursday was taken by unauthorized personnel while anchored 38 nautical miles (70km) northeast of the UAE port of Fujairah, an important oil export terminal that has been repeatedly attacked during the war with Iran.
The UK maritime center did not name the ship and said it is investigating. The British military said the vessel is heading toward Iranian waters.
Indian authorities on Thursday said that an Indian-flagged cargo ship sank off the coast of Oman after an attack sparked a fire aboard the vessel while it was en route from Somalia to Sharjah, another UAE port. They did not say who attacked the ship.
The attack on the Indian-flagged cargo ship Haji Ali occurred on Wednesday, said Mukesh Mangal, a senior official in India’s shipping ministry, adding that all 14 Indian crew members were rescued by Oman’s coast guard and were safe.
The Indian Ministry of External Affairs called the incident “unacceptable” and condemned continued attacks on commercial shipping and civilian mariners. It did not identify who carried out the attack.
Iranian semiofficial news agencies reported that Chinese ships began passing through the strait on Wednesday night under new Iranian protocols.
Reports said Tehran agreed to facilitate the passage of several Chinese vessels after requests from China’s foreign minister and Beijing’s ambassador to Iran. The ships began their passage as Trump arrived in China.
The seizure of a ship off the coast of the UAE happened hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he had quietly visited the country during the Israeli-US war with Iran, though the UAE swiftly denied it.
The Gulf nation normalized relations with Israel in 2020. Iran has criticized that agreement and has repeatedly suggested over the years that Israel maintained a military and intelligence presence in the UAE.
Netanyahu’s decision to go public with the sensitive meeting was likely an effort to drum up support for his flagging party ahead of Israeli elections, said Yoel Guzansky, a senior researcher at the Institute of National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.
“It’s amazing, it’s the deepest cooperation we’ve ever had … that during a war, Israel is defending an Arab state against Iran. It shows how complicated the Middle East is,” he said.
The UAE is trying to highlight its cooperation with Israel, but not with Netanyahu and his government, Guzansky said, because many in the UAE are against Israel’s policies in Gaza.
“They’re trying to differentiate between security cooperation and cooperating with this government,” said Guzansky, who previously worked for the national security council within the Israeli prime minister’s office.
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