Iran says it’s ‘suspicious’ reported tanker attacks came during Japan PM visit
As targeted Japan-linked vessels in Sea of Oman are evacuated amid US-Iran tensions, Khamenei rebuffs PM Abe’s mediation attempts
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Thursday that reported attacks on two tankers off the Iranian coast that came just as Japan’s prime minister held talks in Tehran was more than suspicious.
“Reported attacks on Japan-related tankers occurred while PM @AbeShinzo was meeting with Ayatollah @khamenei_ir for extensive and friendly talks. Suspicious doesn’t begin to describe what likely transpired this morning,” Zarif tweeted.
The reported assault left one of the tankers ablaze and adrift as sailors were evacuated from both vessels and the US Navy rushed to assist amid heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran.
The incident came during a one-on-one between Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, capping the latter’s high-stakes visit in Tehran that sought to ease Iran-US tensions.
Khamenei warned during the meeting that while Tehran doesn’t seek nuclear weapons, “America could not do anything” to stop it if it did, suggesting the mediation efforts had failed.
A statement published by Khamenei’s website after his meeting Thursday with Abe suggested a tense exchange between the two.
“We have no doubt about your good will and seriousness, but… I don’t regard Trump as deserving any exchange of messages,” Khamenei reportedly told Abe.
Khamenei also said Iran remained opposed to building atomic weapons, but offered a challenge to Trump.
“You should know that if we planned to produce nuclear weapons, America could not do anything,” said Khamenei, who has final say on all matters of state in Iran’s Shiite theocracy.
The latest incident in the region comes after the US alleged that Iran used mines to attack four oil tankers off the nearby Emirati port of Fujairah last month. Iran has denied being involved, but it came as Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen launched missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia.
Cmdr. Joshua Frey, a 5th Fleet spokesman, said the US Navy was assisting the two vessels that he described as being hit in a “reported attack.” He did not say how the ships were attacked or who was suspected of being behind the assault.
Dryad Global, a maritime intelligence firm, preliminarily identified one of the vessels involved as the MT Front Altair, a Marshall Islands-flagged crude oil tanker. The vessel was “on fire and adrift,” Dryad added. It did not offer a cause for the incident or mention the second ship.
#UPDATE more images from the incident in the Gulf of #Oman pic.twitter.com/0X7ScdJCdE
— Yosef Yisrael (@yosefyisrael25) June 13, 2019
The firm that operates the Front Altair told The Associated Press that an explosion was the cause of the fire onboard. International Tanker Management declined to comment further, saying they are still investigating what caused the explosion. Its crew of 23 is safe after being evacuated by the nearby Hyundai Dubai vessel, it said.
The chief executive of the company that owns the vessel told AFP that it was still afloat, denying a report by Iran’s official news agency IRNA that it had sunk.
“I can confirm that the vessel has NOT sunk,” Frontline chief executive Robert Hvide Macleod wrote in a text message.
The second vessel was identified as the Kokuka Courageous. BSM Ship Management said it sustained hull damage and 21 sailors had been evacuated, with one suffering minor injuries. Iranian state television said 44 sailors from the two tankers have been transferred to an Iranian port in the southern province of Hormozgan.
The timing of Thursday’s reported attack was especially sensitive as Abe’s high-stakes diplomacy mission was underway in Iran. Japan’s Trade Ministry said the two vessels had “Japan-related cargo.”
On Wednesday, after talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Abe warned that any “accidental conflict” that could be sparked amid the heightened US-Iran tensions must be avoided.
Meanwhile, in Tokyo, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, a top government spokesman, told reporters that Abe’s trip was intended to help de-escalate Mideast tensions — not specifically mediate between Tehran and Washington. His remarks were apparently meant to downplay and lower expectations amid uncertain prospects for Abe’s mission.
Tensions have escalated in the Mideast as Iran appears poised to break the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, an accord that the Trump administration pulled out of last year.
Iran’s nuclear deal, reached in 2015 by China, Russia, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the US, saw Tehran agree to limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of crippling sanctions. Western powers feared Iran’s atomic program could allow it to build nuclear weapons, although Iran long has insisted its program was for peaceful purposes.
In withdrawing from the deal last year, Trump pointed to the accord not limiting Iran’s ballistic missile program and not addressing what American officials describe as Tehran’s malign influence across the wider Middle East. Those who struck the deal at the time described it as a building block toward further negotiations with Iran, whose Islamic government has had a tense relationship with America since the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran and subsequent hostage crisis.
Already, Iran says it quadrupled its production of low-enriched uranium. Meanwhile, US sanctions have cut off opportunities for Iran to trade its excess uranium and heavy water abroad, putting Tehran on course to violate terms of the nuclear deal regardless.
