Tanker attack: Trump rejects Iran's refusal to deny attacking oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman, citing the video as evidence

Missy Ryan

Reporter covering the Pentagon, military issues and national security

Erin Cunningham

A Middle East reporter covering Iran, Turkey, Syria and the wider region

Simon Denyer

Head of the Tokyo office covering Japan, North Korea and South Korea.

June 14 at 19h56

The Trump administration on Friday stepped up its efforts to demonstrate Iran's guilt in a series of damaging oil attacks, while accusations by Washington and Tehran have heightened concerns over the military conflict.

According to US officials, recently released news, including a grainy video, illustrate Tehran's role in the explosion of two explosions on Thursday that paralyzed Japanese-owned ships and Norwegians in the Gulf of Guinea. ;Oman.

But European nations have appealed to all parties to de-escalate, with statements from the owner of one of the vessels appearing to be questioning the American story that Iran's navy ships had used strainer.

President Trump insisted that the video published by the US Central Command seemed to show strangers in a small boat taking something away from an oil tanker – which, according to officials , was an unexploded mine – was proof that Iran had conducted these attacks.

"Well, Iran did it," he told Fox News. "And you know that they did it because you saw the boat."

Describing Iran as a "terrorist nation," the president's remarks underscored the urgency of his administration's approach to a country he saw as its main adversary in the Middle East.

US authorities have said that Thursday's attacks, similar to a similar incident in the United Arab Emirates in May, were part of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps' attempt to block the energy trade. that the United States was trying to prevent Tehran from selling oil to international markets.

Iran has denied any involvement in the attacks. Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that the United States "immediately jumped to make allegations against Iran – [without] any factual or circumstantial evidence, "accusing the Trump White House of" economic terrorism "and" sabotage diplomacy. "

The escalation of rhetoric on both sides has alarmed the allied countries and raised the concern of Democratic lawmakers, who fear that the administration, led by National Security Advisor John Bolton, known for his Warmongering views on Iran, may let out a conflict.

Military officials have been striving to strengthen their presence in the Middle East – which they had reduced in order to refocus on China and Russia – while worrying about the risk of conflict with a well-armed rival and unpredictable.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said this week that the momentum behind the attacks on the Japanese ship Kokuka Courageous and the Norwegian Front Altair was the "maximum pressure campaign" of the administration aimed at to bring Iran to negotiate its nuclear program and its consequences. support for militia in the region.

"This is a way to kick-start a wider conflict between Iran and the United States," said Ali Vaez, senior badyst for Iran and director of the Iranian project for International Crisis Group. "If Iran was behind that, it is very clear that the maximum pressure policy of the Trump administration makes Iran more aggressive, not less."

A day after the attacks, there were still many questions about what had happened and how the administration would react.

Yutaka Katada, chairman of the shipping company Kokuka Sangyo, owner of one of the targeted tankers, told reporters Friday in Tokyo: "The crew says that it was hit by an object They say that something flew towards them, then there was an explosion, then there was a hole in the boat, and then some of the crew saw a second shot.

[Japanese ship owner contradicts U.S. account of how tanker was attacked]

Katada added, "We do not think about putting a bomb on the side. If it's between an explosion and a penetrating bullet, I feel it's a penetrating bullet. If it was an explosion, there would be damage to different places, but this is only a hypothesis or a supposition. "

He added that he did not think the tanker had been hit "because it was Japanese" because it would have been difficult to determine for an attacker.

The Brave was targeted when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met with Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran.

"When the shell fell, it far exceeded the surface of the water," Katada said. "Because of this, there is no doubt that it was not a torpedo."

The ship's crew saw an Iranian military ship in the area on Thursday night at a Japanese time, Reuters news agency reported.

The White House said Trump and Abe had spoken on Friday about the "circumstances surrounding the attacks" and that the president had thanked the Japanese leader "for his efforts to facilitate communication with Iran".

[The last time a ‘Tanker War’ broke out in the Persian Gulf, it lasted for years]

After the attacks, the USS Bainbridge, a guided missile destroyer of the Arleigh Burke clbad that was in the area, embarked 21 crew members aboard the ship. According to US officials, the crew of the Altair Front boarded Iranian navy ships after being rescued by another ship.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Seyyed Abbas Mousavi said "the security of the Straits of Ormuz is the responsibility of the Islamic Republic of Iran".

"We showed that we were able to save the ship's sailors as quickly as possible," he said, according to the Iranian News Agency Islam News. The accusation against Iran, he said, is "not only not funny. . . but alarming and disturbing. "

TASNIM / AFP / GETTY IMAGES A photo from the Iranian news agency Tasnim on June 14 shows some of the crew of an oil tanker targeted by alleged attacks in the Gulf of Oman, apparently after being rescued by Iranian navy. June 13th.

As part of US efforts to defend their arguments about the attacks, officials showed the journalists photographs of Kokuka Courageous with what the navy had identified as an alleged magnetic mine attached to its hull.

One official, who informed the reporters under cover of anonymity because many elements of the investigation remained secret, said that the unexploded device had probably been applied to the hand for a long time. Iranian fast boat. It is thought that this is the same type of weapon that used to drill a hole elsewhere in the tanker and damage the Altair Front, said two officials.

Officials said the type and timing of attacks bore the Iranian mark. But US officials could not yet say for sure where the mines were made or how they were laid.

"There are not many ways to do this," said a manager. "Very few people physically involve placing it on the ship."

Before the attacks, Iranian forces had launched a surface-to-air missile on an American MQ-9 Reaper drone in the area of ​​the attacks, but they were missed, said a defense official on Friday. A few days earlier, Yemeni Houthi militants shot dead another Reaper in the Red Sea, he said. These allegations were first reported by CNN.

US officials said several countries were discussing how to respond. One option may be to provide military escorts for commercial tankers using the Strait of Hormuz, said one official, although no decision has been made.

The attacks highlighted the vulnerability of trade in a strategic waterway borrowed by one-fifth of the world's oil. It links the energy sources of Arab Gulf countries, as well as Iran, to consumers around the world.

US NAVY / US CENTRAL COMMAND / EPA-EFE / SHUTTERSTOCK An image of a video made available by the US Central Command shows a smaller boat near what appears to be the Kokuka Courageous ship, in the Gulf of Mexico. Oman on June 13 The video shows the crew of an Iranian Gashti-clbad patrol boat "removing an unexploded nose-mine" from the tanker.

TASNIM / AFP / GETTY IMAGES A photo obtained on June 13 from the Iranian news agency Tasnim, allegedly showed an Iranian navy ship in the process of controlling the Norwegian tanker Front Altair's fire. which allegedly was attacked in the waters of the Gulf of Oman.

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