The U.S., Israel and the U.K. all vowed to respond to a deadly drone attack on an Israeli-linked tanker last week in a major waterway for global oil shipments that they blamed on Iran.“There will be a collective response,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters Monday. Blinken gave no details of what that might entail.
Middle East foes Iran and Israel have traded multiple accusations of shipping attacks in recent months. But Thursday’s strike off the coast of Oman, which Tehran denied carrying out, was the first to kill crew members — a Romanian and a Briton The two fatalities have raised tensions in the Persian Gulf at a critical juncture with Iran preparing to inaugurate a new president, and talks with world powers over its 2015 nuclear deal stalled.
The U.K. said in a statement that it had summoned Iran’s ambassador to the Foreign Office in London. It’s also sending a team to investigate the attack on the Mercer Street oil-products tanker, now moored off the United Arab Emirates, its deputy envoy to Israel told Israeli broadcaster Kan.
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Sky News that Iran should “face up to the consequences” of its actions. He called the episode an “unacceptable and outrageous attack on commercial shipping.”
In turn, Iran said it had called the British charge d’affaires in Tehran to its Foreign Ministry to protest the accusations against it, state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
Mercer Street tanker was hit while sailing off the Omani coast
Blinken said he didn’t see the attack on the oil-products tanker as a sign of a more combative approach by Iran as its new hard-line president, Ebrahim Raisi, is set to take office on Tuesday.
“We have seen a series of actions taken by Iran over many months, including against shipping, so I’m not sure that this particular action is anything new or augurs anything one way or another for the new government,” Blinken said.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, which is based in the region, declined to comment. The U.S. and its allies created a maritime force in 2019 in response to similar attacks to protect sea lanes in the Middle East.
Israel-Linked Oil Tanker Was Targeted by Drones, U.S. Says
Romania “retains its right to act accordingly, together with its international partners, in order to have an adequate response,” the country’s Foreign Ministry said in e-mailed response to Bloomberg questions, saying it had summoned the Iranian envoy.