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The UAE's Foreign Ministry has accused Iran of a “terrorist attack” against a national carrier affiliated with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company while it transited through the Strait of Hormuz.
The vessel was attacked with two drones, but no injuries were reported, the statement said. The ministry expressed its “utmost condemnation and denunciation” of the attack, calling it a flagrant breach of UN Security Council Resolution 2817 on freedom of maritime navigation.
“Targeting commercial navigation and using the Strait of Hormuz as a tool of pressure or economic blackmail constitutes acts of piracy by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and poses a direct threat to the stability of the region and its people and to global energy security,” the statement added.
The UAE called on Iran to stop its “treacherous attacks” and commit to unconditionally reopening the strait. The UK Maritime Trade Organisation had earlier reported an incident on Sunday in which a tanker was hit by “unknown projectiles”. A map appeared to show the vessel just north of Musandam, Oman.
“All crew reported safe. No environmental impact reported,” it said.
The US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the US Navy would start escorting foreign vessels out of the waterway, hours before Iran warned that it would attack any such ships – particularly American ones – if they approached and entered the Strait.
It was not known how Mr Trump's plan would work, but US Central Command issued a media release saying it would support merchant vessels seeking to transit through the corridor. Iran has been blocking nearly all ships, apart from its own, from accessing the Strait of Hormuz, sending energy prices soaring for two months.
