By Jack Phillips
Contributing Writer
A ship anchored off the United Arab Emirates was captured and moved toward Iran, while a cargo ship near Oman was attacked and sunk, officials said Thursday.
The United Kingdom’s Maritime Trade Operations center, which is operated by the British military, said it received reports that the ship seized on Thursday was taken by “unauthorized personnel” while it was anchored around 38 nautical miles northeast of the United Arab Emirates port of Fujairah, an oil export terminal that has come under Iranian strikes.
The UK maritime center did not provide a name for the ship seized on Thursday and added that it is investigating the matter. It said that the vessel “is now bound for Iranian territorial waters.”
Meanwhile, the Indian government said Thursday that an Indian-flagged ship sank near the coast of Oman, saying that it was attacked and caught on fire. The ship was heading from Somalia to Sharjah, which is another UAE port.
It’s not clear who seized and attacked the vessels.
The attack on the Indian-flagged cargo ship Haji Ali occurred on Wednesday, according to Mukesh Mangal, a senior official in India’s shipping ministry. He said all 14 Indian crew members were rescued by Oman’s coast guard and were safe.
Iran, which has attacked commercial ships in the region since the start of the conflict on Feb. 28, did not offer a public statement regarding the incidents on Thursday. The country has launched repeated attacks or threatened ships in the Strait of Hormuz that connects the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean, which has become a key chokepoint in the ongoing conflict.
While the United States and Iran have kept intact a ceasefire announced last month, President Donald Trump and Iranian officials have said that combat operations could be restarted.
This week, Trump said at a White House event that the ceasefire is on “life support” and criticized a proposal sent by the Iranian regime to end the conflict. On Thursday, a top Iranian military commander, Habibollah Sayyari, said through state-run Tasnim News that Iran would defeat the United States.
Earlier this week, officials in Kuwait alleged that members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards attempted to infiltrate and attack the small oil-rich nation’s Bubiyan Island. Kuwait said that Iran must “immediately cease” its operations against the country, prompting a response from Iran’s foreign minister.
“In clear attempt to sow discord, Kuwait has unlawfully attacked an Iranian boat and detained four of our citizens in the Persian Gulf. This illegal act took place near [an] island used by the U.S. to attack Iran,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote in a social media post on Wednesday. “We demand immediate release of our nationals and reserve right to respond.”
The UAE said Iran launched missiles and drones at its territory earlier this month, including toward the Fujairah oil terminal, which came days after the UAE announced it is leaving the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
