‘Flying Object’ Struck Tanker in Gulf of Oman, Operator Says, Not a Mine
Yutaka Katada, the president of the Japanese shipping company Kokuka Sangyo, in Tokyo on Friday with a photograph of the Kokuka Courageous, one of two ships attacked in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday.CreditCreditJae C. Hong/Associated Press
By Ben Dooley
TOKYO — One of the tankers that were attacked in the Gulf of Oman was struck by a flying object, the ship’s Japanese operator said on Friday, disputing at least part of the account of United States officials who had blamed Iran for the attack.
“Our crew said that the ship was attacked by a flying object,”
said Yutaka Katada, the president of the operator, Kokuka Sangyo.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday that
American intelligence agencies had concluded that Tehran was behind the disabling of two tankers in the Gulf of Oman, a vital conduit for much of the world’s oil. Senior American officials had already blamed Iran for similar attacks last month against four tankers in the same area. Iranian officials denied any involvement in the events, which have escalated tensions in the region.
[
Read: U.S. Says Video Shows Iran Was Involved]
American officials released video on Thursday that they said showed an Iranian boat crew removing a limpet mine attached to the hull of the damaged Kokuka Courageous, a tanker operated by Kokuka Sangyo.
Houthi strike on the same airport on Wednesday. The Houthis said that attack was carried out using a cruise missile.
The attacks in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday occurred as the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, was meeting top officials in Iran, attempting to bridge the divide between Washington and Tehran.
Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, wrote Friday on Twitter that American officials “immediately jumped to make allegations against Iran” without evidence, showing that the United States and its allies, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, were trying to “sabotage diplomacy.”
That the US immediately jumped to make allegations against Iran—w/o a shred of factual or circumstantial evidence—only makes it abundantly clear that the
#B_Team is moving to a
#PlanB: Sabotage diplomacy—including by
@AbeShinzo—and cover up its
#EconomicTerrorism against Iran.
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif)
June 14, 2019
On Friday, the chief cabinet secretary of the Japanese government, Yoshihide Suga, declined to state a position on what had happened to the tankers.
said in a statement on Friday that the insurers of the o tankers, the Front Altair and the Kokuka Courageous, had appointed its subsidiary SMIT Salvage to salvage both vessels and their cargoes.
Boskalis said the situation of the Front Altair, which was carrying a petroleum product, was “still worrisome.” It added that the fire on board has been extinguished.
Eimi Yamamitsu contributed reporting from Tokyo.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/14/world/middleeast/oil-tanker-attack-gulf-oman.html
The U.S. lied to the world again, They are trying to pull another Gulf of Tonkin here.