US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has accused Iran of blowing up two oil tankers near the strategic Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf of Oman, releasing military footage of what the Pentagon says is an Iranian navy boat retrieving an unexploded mine from the hull of one of the targets, a Japanese chemical ship, the Kokuka Courageous.
Donald Trump tweeted his approval of Japan’s prime minister Shinzo Abe pressing on with a diplomatic mission to Tehran but said of Washington’s own long-running feud with the Middle Eastern state: “I personally feel that it is too soon to even think about making a deal. They are not ready, and neither are we!”
The US assessment of Iran’s responsibility, which forced the evacuation of the crews of the Kokuka and the Norwegian MT Front Altair in international waters, was based in part on the video intelligence as well as the expertise needed to carry out the operation, Pompeo told reporters in Washington.
It was also based on a recent series of incidents in the region that the US also blames on Iran, including a similar attack on four tankers in the area in May with limpet mines and the bombing of an oil pipeline in Saudi Arabia by Iranian-backed fighters, he said.
Each vessel was loaded with petroleum products – the Kokuka with methanol from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the Front Altair with naptha from the UAE – and the latter burned for hours, a fire that charred half of one of its sides and sent up a column of thick, black smoke.
Tensions between Iran and the United States have been growing since President Trump last year withdrew from an international agreement aimed at restricting Iran’s nuclear programme and reinstated economic sanctions that have had a devastating effect on the Iranian economy.
In May, the US rushed an aircraft carrier strike group and other military assets to the Persian Gulf region in response to what it said were threats from Iran.
Pompeo said Iran had attempted the covert deployment of small boats capable of launching missiles, in an apparent description of the threat that prompted the deployment.
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