▲ Oil tanker attacked off the coast of Oman on the 29th of last month
Tensions in the Middle East are escalating as militants believed to be Iranian forces have seized a Panama-based tanker.
The Royal Navy’s Maritime Trade Organization warned of extreme caution to nearby ships, saying that an incident presumed to be a ‘ship hijacking’ occurred about 60 nautical miles east of Hujairah Port in the United Arab Emirates on the 3rd local time.
Foreign media quoted an official from the Maritime Trade Organization as saying that the ‘Asphalt Princess’ carrying the Panama flag was seized by eight or nine visible militants in the Sea of Oman leading to the Strait of Hormuz, and that Iran was responsible for the abduction.
A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department said it was “too early to make a judgment”, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department said.
The US military is considering redeploying at least one warship to monitor the situation, Reuters reported.
However, in a statement posted on its website, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps completely denied the possibility of involvement, saying, “The Iranian military has nothing to do with this incident.”
Rather, the Revolutionary Guards claimed that “this incident was an attempt made by Israel and Western countries to create hostile international public opinion against Iran.”
Earlier, on the 29th of last month, a tanker operated by an Israeli shipping company was attacked by a drone in the waters of an Israeli shipping company in the waters of Oman on the 29th of last month.
(Photo=AFP, Yonhap News)
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