Four commercial vessels have been targeted by “sabotage operations” near territorial waters of the United Arab Emirates.
The UAE foreign ministry said the sabotage attempt occurred in the Gulf of Oman but gave no details of what form it took.
There were no injuries or deaths.
Later, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said two Saudi oil tankers were the targets of a “sabotage attack” off the coast of the United Arab Emirates on Sunday. The incident near Fujairah port caused “significant damage” to the vessels, Khalid al-Falih said in a statement.
Tensions are high in the area – a crucial oil and natural gas corridor. In recent days the US has sent additional warships there.
The UAE foreign ministry called the attempted sabotage a “dangerous development” and called upon the international community to “prevent such actions” in future.
Earlier, the UAE emirate of Fujairah has denied media reports that claimed a series of explosions had rocked its port on Sunday.
Claims from a number of news outlets, which were then shared on social media, said there had been explosions on Sunday morning and that fires had broken out on some of the docked oil tankers in the port.
Fujairah government’s media office tweeted statement on Sunday denying there had been any explosions and that operations were continuing as normal.
It also called on media organizations to be “accurate” in their reporting and to only publish information once it was “confirmed by official sources.”
The harbor master of Fujairah port, who had been on shift at the time, also confirmed that there was no truth to the reports.
Via Arab News /BBC
