World
Third ship hit in Hormuz within 24 hours, as Doha blames Iran for striking Qatari tanker
The British military’s maritime security agency said a tanker was hit Tuesday in the Strait of Hormuz, less than a day after two other ships, including a Qatari gas tanker, were allegedly attacked by Iran.
“UKMTO has received a report of a further incident involving a tanker transiting the Strait of Hormuz,” the Maritime Trade Operations center said on X. “The tanker was struck by an unknown Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and has sustained minor structural damage. No casualties or environmental impact reported.”
The two ships targeted earlier also reportedly sustained damage, with nobody hurt.
Amid the strikes, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on a visit to a Haifa naval base that Israel would protect freedom of maritime navigation.
“I set a simple objective,” he said. “The objective of the Navy, and of Israel, is to ensure shipping routes and freedom of maritime trade, which are so important to the State of Israel.”
Netanyahu didn’t go as far as to say that Israel would take actions in the Strait of Hormuz, though, so it wasn’t immediately clear whether his declaration would have any implications on the broader regional conflict.
The string of Iranian attacks, after more than a week of respite, revived concerns about freedom of navigation after a memorandum of understanding that the US and Iran reached last month required Tehran to lift its blockade of the waterway.
All three vessels were struck close to Oman, which had proposed a temporary transit corridor hugging its coastline. Tehran, which wants to charge ships using the narrow waterway, is opposed to the Omani initiative.
Qatar, which helped broker the US-Iran talks, blamed Iran for the attack on its tanker overnight and urged Tehran to “cease all practices that undermine regional security or threaten the safety of international maritime navigation.”
“The targeting of the Qatari vessel ‘Al-Rekayyat’ while transiting near the Strait of Hormuz constitutes an unacceptable attack on the security and safety of international maritime navigation,” Doha’s foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari wrote on X.
“We hold Iran fully legally responsible for this attack and for any resulting damages or repercussions,” he added.
The Al-Rekayyat was the first Qatari liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker to be targeted since the US and Israel launched the war on Iran on February 28 in a bid to destabilize its leadership and destroy its ballistic missile and nuclear programs.
Four sources with knowledge of the matter said the Qatari tanker’s engine room was on fire following the attack on the ship, and that the crew was unable to assess the damage. One of the sources said the crew was safe and that the vessel had sent out distress signals after it was hit on its port side.
Iran imposed its blockade on the Strait of Hormuz early in the war with the US and Israel. The closure choked off about a fifth of the world’s oil shipments and sent global energy prices soaring.
The fighting, which included Iranian missile and drone strikes on Israel and Gulf states, entered a truce on April 8. The US and Iran are engaged in 60-day negotiations kicked off by the MOU they reached last month.
Israel is not a party to the negotiations or the memorandum, and Israeli officials have assailed the document for failing to secure concrete concessions from Iran on its nuclear program.
Lazer Berman contributed to this report.
