Iran Press/ commentary: The oil tanker, SABITY, belonging to the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) sustained damage to its body when it was hit by missiles 60 miles off the Saudi port city of Jeddah on Friday morning.
The two main tanks of the ship were damaged and oil is reported spilling into the Red Sea.
The spokesman for Iran's foreign ministry, Seyyed Abbas Mousavi, reacting to the incident said on the same day that according to recent investigations done by Iran's National Iranian Oil Company, the Iranian oil tanker has been targeted twice (just 30 minutes apart) in a place near the transit corridor located in eastern Red Sea.
Furthermore, in recent months, there have been some other anti-Iran moves targeting Iranian oil tankers in the Red Sea which are being kept under close and detailed watch and investigation. The attack on the Iranian oil tanker has been reported by media around the world and some countries, including China and Russia, have reacted to the attack.
However, the Islamic Republic of Iran has repeatedly warned about the presence and activities of some actors, both inside and outside of the region, who want to destabilise the Persian Gulf and the Middle East.
Earlier the director of World Studies Program at the Center for Strategic Studies based in Tehran, Diako Hosseini’ while referring to the suspicious attacks on the two tankers in the Sea of Oman, only a few weeks after the similar series of attacks on another oil tanker in the UAE port of Fujairah, had speculated about the identity of those who were behind these incidents.
Related news:
Iranian oil tanker hit by an explosion near Jeddah in a terrorist attack
The terrorist attacks against commercial shipping can lead to serious consequences. Of course, the scenarios suggested by Western officials and observers regarding the security of oil tankers are worth deep contemplation for they can turn the tensions into an international crisis.
Also, it is possible that acts of terrorism are meant to pit regional countries against each other. Last June when two oil tankers were targeted by attacks in the Sea of Oman, the political media and circles interpreted them as 'suspicious acts' meant to steer the Persian Gulf region towards war, and stepping up pressure on Iran, as the political analyst Ghasem Ezeddin had pointed out before.
All these scenarios that have been implemented all across the world, including the British act of piracy in the Strait of Gibraltar, carried out at the behest of the Trump administration, during which the Iranian supertanker 'Grace 1' ( now renamed Adrian Darya) was seized in an illegal action by Britain's Royal Marines, all have contributed to escalating tensions in the region.
This is the same route followed by the White House and the extremists US allies so that they could come up with a so-called coalition in the Persian Gulf. Hence, yesterday's attack on an Iranian oil tanker in the Red Sea should be seen as another attempt to portray navigation of commercial ships in the Middle East as unsafe and hazardous, and lead to rising tensions around Iran.
However, as foreign ministry spokesman Mousavi pointed out, all of the responsibility for the attack on the Iranian oil tanker in the Red Sea, including the environmental damage caused by the oil spill into the Red Sea, lie squarely at the feet of those who have been behind this very risky attack.
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