Two damaged tankers arrived safely on Sunday to locations off the Emirati coast after they were rocked by explosions in Gulf waters, in an incident Saudi Arabia blamed on its regional arch-rival Iran.
The Japanese-owned Kokuka Courageous was carrying highly flammable methanol through the Gulf of Oman on Thursday when it came under attack along with the Norwegian-operated Front Altair -- the second assault in a month in the strategic shipping lane.
US President Donald Trump has said the operation had Iran “written all over it” -- rejecting Tehran’s vehement denial -- and its key Gulf ally Saudi Arabia has also lashed out against Tehran.
In his first public comments since the attacks, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in remarks published Sunday that he would not hesitate to tackle any threats to the oil-rich kingdom.
“We do not want a war in the region... But we won’t hesitate to deal with any threat to our people, our sovereignty, our territorial integrity and our vital interests,” he told pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat.
He said Iran had responded to a visit to Tehran by Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe “by attacking two tankers, one of which was Japanese”.
Abe had been on an unprecedented visit to the Iranian capital in a bid to defuse tensions between Washington and the Islamic Republic when the attacks took place.
The US military on Friday released grainy footage it said showed an Iranian patrol boat removing an “unexploded limpet mine” from the Japanese vessel.
The crew of the Kokuka Courageous saw a “flying object” before a second blast on board, the operator’s head said Friday.
The vessel’s Singapore-based BSM Ship Management said in a statement Sunday that it had “arrived safely at the designated anchorage” and that its crew were “safe and well”.
A damage assessment and preparations for transferring the ship’s cargo would start once authorities had completed “security checks and formalities”, it added.
The other ship, the Front Altair, was under safe tow by tug boats towards an area off the coast of the eastern Emirati port of Fujairah.
