Page 7 - MEOG Week 24

MEOG Commentary MEOG
told the BBc: “Iran has no connection with the incident. Somebody is trying to destabilise relations between Iran and the international community.”
Zarif also tweeted that “Iran’s [recently] pro- posedRegionalDialogueForumisimperative.” Iranian President Hassan Rouhani subse-
quently appeared on state TV, saying: “Security is of high importance to Iran in the sensitive region of the Persian Gulf, in the Middle East, in asia and in the whole world. We have always tried to secure peace and stability in the region.”
UK Prime Minister eresa May’s spokes- man told reporters that Britain – still signed up to the nuclear deal like other major power signa- tories France, Germany, Russia and china – was “urgently seeking” the facts behind the suspected attacks.
no message for trump
Iran, plunged into a painful recession and according to some reports nearing insolvency in the face of the toughest US sanctions it has ever endured, says the US has mounted an “eco- nomic war” against it. O cials have made it clear the US would have to call o that “war” before nuclear deal talks could even be countenanced and Iranian media on June 13 quoted Khame- nei as saying during talks with abe that he did not see Trump as being worthy of any exchange of messages. any trust in the US was lost when it unilaterally walked out of the multilateral nuclear pact, he made clear.
Front altair was carrying 75,000 tonnes of naphtha, a petrochemical feedstock. It was “sus- pected [that it was] hit by a torpedo”, Wu I-Fang from Taiwan’s state oil re ner cPc, which char- tered the vessel, said, although later in the day Reuters quoted sources as saying torpedoes were not used against the ships.
e Kokuka courageous, carrying metha- nol, was damaged in a “suspected attack” that breached its hull above the waterline. It was en route from Saudi arabia to Singapore, Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement said.
Iranian state TV reported 44 crew had been evacuated from the tankers to the Iranian port of Jask, although the Bahrain-based US Fi h Fleet said it had rescued some crew members and taken them to Oman.
Japan’s trade ministry said the two oil tankers carried “Japan-related” cargo.
uae inquiry
e UaE launched an inquiry into the tanker attacks that took place during the early hours of May 12. It found that the sophisticated lim- pet mines used in those attacks were of a type usedbystate-likeactors,buttheinquiryconclu- sions stopped short of blaming Iran or any other state as the culprit. National security advisor to Trump and foreign policy hawk John Bolton – who while still a private citizen many times advocated the merits of attacking the Islamic Republic to force regime change and who has backed some highly dubious Iranian opposition groups in exile – claimed Iran was almost cer- tainly involved in the attacks. ere were sugges- tions the US would present evidence to the UN to that e ect, but that has not happened.
cailin Birch, global economist at e Econ- omist Intelligence Unit, said in remarks on the attacks: “It remains unclear who the actors are behind the recent spate of tanker attacks in the Gulf of Oman. Iranian authorities will continue to deny responsibility, either directly or indi- rectly through proxies. Houthi rebels ghting Saudi forces in Yemen are also suspected of being behind the attacks.
“Given the lack of clear information, there is a risk that the US government will interpret the recent attacks as a potential sign of Iranian aggression in the region; the national security advisor, John Bolton, indicated as much a er the attacks that occurred last month.
“US-Iran tensions are already running high as Iran’s deadline to stop complying with some aspects of its nuclear agreement, unless Euro- pean countries help it to maintain exports, approaches in the next 30 days.”
another theory for the attacks is that they were undertaken by Houthi rebels ghting the Saudi-led efforts to oust them from Yemen. e Houthis are backed by Iran. On June 12, the Saudi Gazette ran a headline stating “Iran hand behind abha attack” a er a missile attack on abha airport in Saudi arabia that reportedly injured 26 people.
“The continuation of the Iranian regime’s aggression and reckless escalation, whether directly or through its militias, will result in grave consequences,” Saudi arabia’s deputy defence minister, Prince Khalid bin Salman, said in a statement following the abha attack.
Iran denies providing anything more than moral support to the Houthis.™
Week 24 18•June•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P7