VoltA ship may have been hijacked off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in the Gulf of Oman. The British Maritime Warning Center (UKMTO) initially issued a warning on Tuesday due to an “incident” about 60 nautical miles east of the Emirate of Fujairah. It said that all nearby ships should be “very careful.” Soon after, UKMTO issued another warning of “possible kidnapping”.
Very noisy on wednesday morning Marin Transportation Website The state of the 45-year-old tanker was “stopped”. Therefore, the ship has not completed a route for five hours. It can also be seen in Marin Traffic that there are no other cargo ships on the way within a larger radius. According to the website, this is an oil tanker “Asphalt Princess” flying the Panamanian flag. On Tuesday night, the Omani Air Force is said to be operating with maritime reconnaissance aircraft in the area.exist Website Flightradar24 At night, someone saw a reconnaissance plane hovering over the area. The Gulf of Oman is located between Oman and Iran. There was no official confirmation of the incident on Wednesday morning.At first it was not clear who was the so-called behind the scenes Kidnapping It may get stuck.
The British “Times” quoted government sources as saying that a “force” composed of eight or nine armed men controlled the “Asphalt Princess”. CNN also reported this. The London government believes that Iran or its militias are responsible for the kidnapping. The British Foreign Office said on Tuesday night that it “is urgently investigating an incident on a ship off the coast of the United Arab Emirates.”
The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the incident as “suspicious” and warned against making baseless accusations against Iran again. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Saidi Boussad said: “These consecutive incidents of Persian Gulf ships are very questionable and doubtful.” Most importantly, these incidents should not be used as an excuse to achieve certain political goals in the region. According to the Iranian News Agency, the spokesperson said that the safety of shipping in the Persian Gulf is extremely important to Iran, so Tehran is also prepared to provide assistance.
Ships enter the Persian Gulf through the Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz. This route is considered to be one of the most important sea passages for international trade. The situation in the area is particularly tense for navigation. There have been events again and again. Recently, a British man and a Romanian captain were killed in a drone attack on the oil tanker Mercer Street in the Persian GulfThe United Kingdom, Romania, Israel and the United States blamed this incident on Iran. Tehran refused to participate.
The background to the increased tension in the Middle East in recent years is, among other things, the dispute with Iran on the international nuclear agreement. The United States unilaterally terminated the agreement in May 2018. Since then, there have been many incidents and acts of sabotage against oil tankers and attacks on oil facilities in the Gulf region.The most recent incident occurred a few days before the inauguration Iran’s new President Ibrahim Raisi.
