U.S. blames Iran for tanker attacks in Gulf of Oman, oil prices rise

[webfact]

U.S. blames Iran for tanker attacks in Gulf of Oman, oil prices rise

By Lisa Barrington and Phil Stewart

 

An oil tanker is seen after it was attacked at the Gulf of Oman, June 13, 2019. ISNA/Handout via REUTERS

 

DUBAI/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two oil tankers were attacked on Thursday and left adrift in the Gulf of Oman, driving up oil prices and stoking fears of a new confrontation between Iran and the United States, which blamed Tehran for the incident.

 

"It is the assessment of the United States government that the Islamic Republic of Iran is responsible for the attacks that occurred in the Gulf of Oman today," U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters without providing explicit evidence to back up the U.S. stance.

 

"This assessment is based on intelligence, the weapons used, the level of expertise needed to execute the operation, recent similar Iranian attacks on shipping, and the fact that no proxy group operating in the area has the resources and proficiency to act with such a high degree of sophistication," Pompeo said.

 

Crude oil prices spiked more than 4% after the attacks near the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial shipping artery for Saudi Arabia and other Gulf energy producers, stoked fears such disruptions could impact oil flows from the Middle East. Prices later settled about 2% higher.

 

Washington accused Tehran of being behind a similar attack on May 12 on four tankers in the same area.

 

Tensions between Iran and the United States, along with its allies including Saudi Arabia, have risen since U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of a deal last year between Iran and global powers that aimed to curb Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

 

Iran has repeatedly warned it would block the Strait of Hormuz if it cannot sell its oil due to U.S. sanctions.

 

No one claimed responsibility for the attacks. Analysts warned against jumping to conclusions about the culprit, saying it was conceivable that Iran might have carried them out but also that someone else might have done to discredit Tehran.

 

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif described the incidents as "suspicious" on Twitter and called for regional dialogue. Tehran has denied responsibility for the May 12 attacks.

 

A European security official said his nation was being very cautious in making judgements about the incident.

 

"There are lots of moving parts and 'facts' at the moment, so my only advice would be treat things with extra caution," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

 

SHIPS ABANDONED

The crew of the Norwegian-owned Front Altair abandoned ship in the waters between Gulf Arab states and Iran after a blast that a source said might have been from a magnetic mine. The ship was ablaze, sending a huge plume of smoke into the air.

 

The crew were picked up by a passing ship and handed to an Iranian rescue boat.

 

The second ship, the Japanese-owned Kokuka Courageous tanker whose crew were also picked up safely, was hit by a suspected torpedo, the firm that chartered the ship said. A person with knowledge of the matter said the attack did not use torpedoes, however.

 

An unexploded device, believed to be a limpet mine, was spotted on the side of the Japanese tanker, a U.S. official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. If confirmed, the next steps might be to either deactivate or detonate the device.

 

The Bahrain-based U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet said it had assisted the two tankers after receiving distress calls.

 

The Saudi-led military coalition, which is battling the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen, described Thursday's events as a "major escalation".

 

Russia, one of Iran's main allies, urged caution, saying no one should rush to judgment about the incident or use it to put pressure on Tehran.

 

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on cooperation between the United Nations and the League of Arab States that the world cannot afford "a major confrontation in the Gulf region".

 

Pompeo said he asked the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations to raise the attacks during a closed-door meeting of the Security Council to be held later on Thursday.

 

"We need to remember that some 30% of the world's (seaborne) crude oil passes through the straits. If the waters are becoming unsafe, the supply to the entire Western world could be at risk," said Paolo d’Amico, chairman of INTERTANKO tanker association.

 

For a graphic on Position of evacuated tankers in Gulf of Oman, see -

 

IRAN REJECTS TALKS WITH U.S. FOR NOW

Iran has not openly acted on its threat to close the Strait of Hormuz even though U.S. sanctions have seen its oil exports drop from 2.5 million barrels per day in April last year to around 400,000 bpd in May.

 

Both sides have said they want to avoid war.

 

"Our policy remains an economic and diplomatic effort to bring Iran back to the negotiating table at the right time to encourage a comprehensive deal that addresses the broad range of threats (from Iran)," Pompeo said. "Iran should meet diplomacy with diplomacy, not with terror, bloodshed and extortion."

 

In abandoning the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Trump made clear he wanted Iran to curb not merely its nuclear work but also its development of missiles and its support for proxy forces in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.

 

Some regional analysts said they thought the attacks were likely to have been carried out by Iran and described them as a way for Tehran to try to acquire negotiating leverage and perhaps increase global pressure for U.S.-Iran talks.

 

 

"There is always the possibility that somebody is trying to blame the Iranians," said Jon Alterman of Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, referring to a so-called "false flag" operation to implicate another nation.

 

"But there is the greater likelihood that this represents an effort to bolster Iranian diplomacy by creating a perceived international urgency to have the United States and Iran talk," he added.

 

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was visiting Tehran when Thursday's attacks occurred, carrying a message for Iran from Trump. Abe, whose country was a big importer of Iranian oil until Washington ratcheted up sanctions, urged all sides not to let tensions in the area escalate.

 

Iran said it would not respond to Trump's overture, the substance of which was not made public.

 

Britain said it was "deeply concerned" about the attacks. Germany, which like Britain remains a party to the nuclear pact with Iran, said the "situation is dangerous" and all sides needed to avoid an escalation.

 

The Arab League said some parties were "trying to instigate fires in the region," without naming a particular party.

 

Saudi Arabia and the UAE, both majority Sunni Muslim nations that have a long-running rivalry with predominantly Shi'ite Iran, have previously said attacks on oil assets in the Gulf pose a risk to global oil supplies and regional security.

 

(Reporting by Koustav Samanta and Jessica Jaganathan in Singapore, Liang-Sa Loh and Yimou Lee in Taipei, Terje Solsvik in Oslo, Ghaida Ghantous in Dubai, Marwa Rashad in Riyadh, Michelle Nichols at the United Nations, Jessica Resnick Ault in New York; Hyunjoo Jin in Seoul and Jonathan Saul and Bozorgmehr Sharafedin in London; Doina Chiacu, Mark Hosenball, Jonathan Landay, Phil Stewart, and Lesley Wroughton in Washington; Writing by Edmund Blair, Alison Williams and Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Jon Boyle, Nick Tattersall and Sonya Hepinstall)

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-06-14

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[Tug]

Could be but then again  could be someone else Donald is desperate for distractions rite now could be at his direction who knows

[TopDeadSenter]

18 minutes ago, Tug said:

Could be but then again  could be someone else Donald is desperate for distractions rite now could be at his direction who knows

are you seriously suggestion that Donald Trump torpedoed 2 fully laden fuel tankers in the straits of Hormuz? What was I just saying yesterday about unhinged?

[legend49]

And where is the evidence of the accusation Pompeo ? Hopeless and as fake as Trump.

[nobodysfriend]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Analysts warned against jumping to conclusions about the culprit, saying it was conceivable that Iran might have carried them out but also that someone else might have done to discredit Tehran.

When want to make war , need to have a pretext .

[Tug]

33 minutes ago, TopDeadSenter said:

are you seriously suggestion that Donald Trump torpedoed 2 fully laden fuel tankers in the straits of Hormuz? What was I just saying yesterday about unhinged?

No I said it was possible and your Donald is quite capable of ordering something like this and those weren’t torpedoes those were limpet mines attached to the hull via swimmers it’s shockingly easy to do and very low tech in spite of what pompeo says your Donald has said more than 10,000 lies since taking office I don’t belive anything he says he earned that feeling with interest 

 

 

[Boon Mee]

53 minutes ago, TopDeadSenter said:

are you seriously suggestion that Donald Trump torpedoed 2 fully laden fuel tankers in the straits of Hormuz? What was I just saying yesterday about unhinged?

Peak TDS or what? 555 

[Tug]

33 minutes ago, Boon Mee said:

Peak TDS or what? 555 

Yes we all know some unfortunates have the trump delusion syndrome bad 

[phantomfiddler]

2 hours ago, Tug said:

Could be but then again  could be someone else Donald is desperate for distractions rite now could be at his direction who knows

Dream on, could be time for someone to turn Iran into a parking lot ????

[rabas]

1 hour ago, Tug said:

No I said it was possible and your Donald is quite capable of ordering something like this and those weren’t torpedoes those were limpet mines attached to the hull via swimmers it’s shockingly easy to do and very low tech in spite of what pompeo says your Donald has said more than 10,000 lies since taking office I don’t belive anything he says he earned that feeling with interest

 

Both ships were over 50km from shore and from each other. How fast can you swim with a  mine? Now there are reports (including CNN so your OK) that Iran was filmed returning to the scene to remove the unexploded limpet mine, which would have been perfect evidence against them.

 

Image of unexploded mine.

[Tug]

25 minutes ago, rabas said:

 

Both ships were over 50km from shore and from each other. How fast can you swim with a  mine? Now there are reports (including CNN so your OK) that Iran was filmed returning to the scene to remove the unexploded limpet mine, which would have been perfect evidence against them.

 

Image of unexploded mine.

Geese if any really stupid guy were to do something like that I would assume he would attach  his limpet when the ship was dockside duhhh and probably use a remote or timer or some gps type device really low tec and shockingly easy to do 

[Chomper Higgot]

cui bono?

[sammieuk1]

10 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

cui bono?

"Sunday bloody Sunday" in the name of love ????

[neeray]

Oh no. This is all that Donald needs for a distraction to his problem du jour. And just what the little man with the mouse on his upper lip has been waiting for.

[stevenl]

" no proxy group operating in the area has the resources and proficiency to act with such a high degree of sophistication, "

Aren't Israel and USA in the region?

[otherstuff1957]

23 minutes ago, stevenl said:

" no proxy group operating in the area has the resources and proficiency to act with such a high degree of sophistication, "

Aren't Israel and USA in the region?

Not to mention the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which has been doing  quite a bit of sabre-rattling lately.

[jany123]

6 hours ago, webfact said:It is the assessment of the United States government that the Islamic Republic of Iran is responsible for the attacks that occurred in the Gulf of Oman today," U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters without providing explicit evidence to back up the U.S. stance.

That’s the exact type of scare mongering that the world believed from a far more credible US administration, leading to a war which failed to produce any evidence to back up the claim, and look how that turned out.

 

However, this administration has no credibility whatsoever, given it’s the administration of 10,000 lies and counting. A45 doesn’t even trust its own intelligence agencies, nor they him (probably), so what possible motivation can we have, to encourage us to believe (and follow) this lying country down the road to war

 

every single child in the world is taught the lesson of the dangers of crying wolf. When the wolf does comes calling, no one believes the known liar. I guess trump et al were absent that day

 

America should immediately retreat to the provisions of the deal that the world made with Iran, for the sake of world peace and stability (vs maga) and use diplomacy to encourage Iran to attend negotiations on further restrictions to its war capability, verses using economic terrorism (against the rest of the treaty signatories will), in its attempts to cripple Iran and its people.

 

diplomatic overtures might have included lifting certain sanctions agreed in 2015, for a wind down of missiles, but I suppose that kind of thinking is not in the nature of the entitled bully currently occupying the White House 

[Krataiboy]

The US strategists had Iran in their crosshairs long before Donald Trump slipped into the White House via the tradesmen's entrance.

Does anyone other than CNN actually believe Iran is deliberately seeking to bring the wrath of the world's military superpower down on its heads? Or are we seeing the US tried and tested "false flag" recipe for "retaliation" in action once again?

https://journal-neo.org/2019/06/13/convenient-tanker-attacks-as-us-seeks-war-with-iran/

[billd766]

1 hour ago, stevenl said:

" no proxy group operating in the area has the resources and proficiency to act with such a high degree of sophistication, "

Aren't Israel and USA in the region?

Don't forget Saudi Arabia and possibly some parts of the UAE.

[bristolboy]

2 minutes ago, billd766 said:

Don't forget Saudi Arabia and possibly some parts of the UAE.

According to US intelligence, the UAE actually created an incident to justify the break in relations with Qatar.

[jany123]

25 minutes ago, Krataiboy said:

Donald Trump slipped into the White House via the tradesmen's entrance.

Priceless... thanks. ????

[harada]

The first word that came to mind upon hearing this on the morning news was setup.????????

[Dellboy218]

2 hours ago, stevenl said:

" no proxy group operating in the area has the resources and proficiency to act with such a high degree of sophistication, "

Aren't Israel and USA in the region?

Tony Blair will be out there soon to locate the missing WMDs.

Having said that Iran is no stranger to attacking tankers using anything from Exocets down. 

[Ozman52]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-14/us-releases-video-it-says-shows-iranian-military-recovering-mine/11209948

[khunken]

More finger pointng. Still no 'evidence' from Bolton that he said he would present to the UN about the previous attacks.

There is no sophistication in attaching a limpet mine to the hull of a ship and the list of possible perpetrators who want to attack oil tankers & those who want to instigate a war in the region (beyond the on-going one in Yemen) is quite long.

[Morch]

4 hours ago, jany123 said:

That’s the exact type of scare mongering that the world believed from a far more credible US administration, leading to a war which failed to produce any evidence to back up the claim, and look how that turned out.

 

However, this administration has no credibility whatsoever, given it’s the administration of 10,000 lies and counting. A45 doesn’t even trust its own intelligence agencies, nor they him (probably), so what possible motivation can we have, to encourage us to believe (and follow) this lying country down the road to war

 

every single child in the world is taught the lesson of the dangers of crying wolf. When the wolf does comes calling, no one believes the known liar. I guess trump et al were absent that day

 

America should immediately retreat to the provisions of the deal that the world made with Iran, for the sake of world peace and stability (vs maga) and use diplomacy to encourage Iran to attend negotiations on further restrictions to its war capability, verses using economic terrorism (against the rest of the treaty signatories will), in its attempts to cripple Iran and its people.

 

diplomatic overtures might have included lifting certain sanctions agreed in 2015, for a wind down of missiles, but I suppose that kind of thinking is not in the nature of the entitled bully currently occupying the White House 

 

Not that I disagree with the criticism of Trump's foreign policy moves - but it ought to be pointed out that Iran is not generally forthcoming with concessions unless actual consequences are actively present.

[Morch]

4 hours ago, Krataiboy said:

The US strategists had Iran in their crosshairs long before Donald Trump slipped into the White House via the tradesmen's entrance.

Does anyone other than CNN actually believe Iran is deliberately seeking to bring the wrath of the world's military superpower down on its heads? Or are we seeing the US tried and tested "false flag" recipe for "retaliation" in action once again?

https://journal-neo.org/2019/06/13/convenient-tanker-attacks-as-us-seeks-war-with-iran/

 

So, in order to make your "point', you reference a Tony Cartalucci piece. Originally appeared (I think) on Land Destroyer, but the version linked is, appropriately enough, from an  online journal published by the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. One can guess the content before even seeing the headline. Seriously, you could do better than that.

 

As for the "US strategists had Iran in their crosshairs long before Donald Trump" bit - being a superpower and working on a global level kinda implies having strategies involving other countries. The "article" linked references (or rather, cherry picks from) "Which Path To Persia", which was a collection of strategic reviews published by the Brookings Institution. Interested posters may wish to look it up.

[Rimmer]

More troll posts removed

[Chomper Higgot]

26 minutes ago, Morch said:

 

Not that I disagree with the criticism of Trump's foreign policy moves - but it ought to be pointed out that Iran is not generally forthcoming with concessions unless actual consequences are actively present.

While I agree that seems the case with respect to Iran and the US and Western Governments but I wonder if it's entirely true.

 

How, does Iran respond to diplomacy from China, Russia, India, Pakistan and others?

 

 
 

[Morch]

31 minutes ago, khunken said:

More finger pointng. Still no 'evidence' from Bolton that he said he would present to the UN about the previous attacks.

There is no sophistication in attaching a limpet mine to the hull of a ship and the list of possible perpetrators who want to attack oil tankers & those who want to instigate a war in the region (beyond the on-going one in Yemen) is quite long.

 

Yes, Bolton sure is taking his time presenting the alleged evidence related to the first attack. And the same applies to Pompeo on this one, unless that video clip is genuine and shows what it's supposedly showing. Would be much better if the both kept their mouth shut unless it's to provide a clear indication that Iran did or didn't carry out the attacks.

 

And yes, the list might include quite a few countries, including the one who's flag you use as an avatar.