Tehran denies US accusations regarding double June 13 incident in Gulf of Oman
Amid heightened tension in the Middle East, the war of words continues to escalate between the United States and its allies on one side, and Iran on the other.
The latest round comes after two more oil tankers were attacked on Thursday just southeast of the Strait of Hormuz, not far from where four commercial vessels were sabotaged and damaged last month.
Washington was quick to accuse Tehran of carrying out the attacks, with President Donald Trump saying: “We don’t take it lightly.”
In an interview with the Fox & Friends program on the Fox News Channel, the president did not mince words. He pointed his finger solely at Iran and told the hosts of his favorite show that the images of vessels ablaze and emitting billows of black smoke showed that Iran “did do” tanker explosions. He added that Iran could not close Hormuz “for long.”
On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the attacks “unprovoked,” saying intelligence about the type of weapons used put the blame squarely on Iran.
“It is the assessment of the United States that the Islamic Republic of Iran is responsible for the attacks,” Pompeo said. “This is based on intelligence, the weapons used, the level of expertise needed to execute the operation, recent similar Iranian attacks on shipping, and the fact that no proxy group operating in the area has the resources and proficiency to act with such a high degree of sophistication.”
The top U.S. diplomat’s blatant accusations took place as he warned that the United States would defend its forces and allies in the region.
Iran, for its part, quickly dismissed the claims by Trump and Pompeo as “unfounded.”
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif vehemently denied his American counterpart’s accusations, saying the US administration had “immediately jumped to make allegations against Iran without a shred of factual or circumstantial evidence.”
But pointing the finger at Tehran came from other countries, too.
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The United Arab Emirates said on Friday that the twin attacks, which came just weeks after four ships were damaged off its coast, marked a “dangerous escalation.”
“The attack against the tankers in the Gulf of Oman is a worrying development and a dangerous escalation,” its minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, tweeted after Thursday’s explosions.
Negar Mortazavi, a Washington-based Iranian-American journalist and consulting editor at the Independent newspaper, told The Media Line that she couldn’t rule out Iran as being behind the attacks.
“There are certain elements within the Iranian establishment that welcome increasing tension or a limited military conflict with the United States,” Mortazavi said.
She added, however, that it was not only hardliners on the Iranian side who were beating the drums of war.
“There are certain elements within the White House, mainly [National Security Adviser] John Bolton and some others, who have been looking for a military conflict with Iran, or an excuse for a military conflict for so many years,” Mortazavi said.
She added that US allies in region, such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Israel, were eager to see Washington and Tehran go at it.
“They tried to prevent the Iranian nuclear deal,” she stated. “They weren’t successful and the deal went through. Now it seems they have found a new friend and ally in the White House and have been pushing for some kind of conflict or more pressure on Iran.”
Hassan Awwad, a U.S.-based conflict resolution expert, concurs.
“They [Thursday’s and other attacks] are in the best interest of the parties that have been sabotaging the P5+1 nuclear deal and calling for a military attack on Iran,” he told The Media Line. “These parties include some US officials and their allies in the Middle East. The best interest of Tehran is to solve the conflict and remove the U.S. sanctions through diplomacy.”
Awwad added that the mysterious attacks and subsequent back-and-forth accusations between Iran and the U.S. could lead to unintended consequences.
“One may think that it’s just words, but the slightest miscalculation on either side may lead to war,” he said.
Thursday’s attacks sent oil prices soaring on world markets.
The Strait of Hormuz is a vital shipping lane where hundreds of millions of barrels of oil moving to countries all around the world pass. Any threats to its navigability will always shake oil markets.
“Markets love stability,” said Awwad, who explained that there were three scenarios awaiting the region.
“First, President Trump, who appears not to favor military action, will continue to push Iran through hard diplomacy, including sanctions, threats and military deployments until Tehran changes its strategies in the region. Israel and its allies in the region want Iran to stop its intervention in other states’ internal affairs and to stop supporting non-state actors, including Hizbullah and Hamas,” he stated.
“The second scenario is that the hardliners in the current US administration will continue their campaign to attack Iran,” he went on, explaining that military action against Iran also hinged on the upcoming Israeli elections and whether Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu wins another term or not.
“The third scenario,” he concluded, “is that Japanese mediation will help de-escalate the tensions between the Washington and Tehran until after the U.S. elections of 2020.”
Mortazavi says that despite the heightened tension, leaders on both sides realize that the cost of war is too high and the conflict should be solved through diplomacy.
“What I can say definitively,” she told The Media Line, “is that the top leadership in Iran and the U.S. don’t want to engage in a war with each other because it’s not what either population wants.”