Warning that tanker attacks risk sparking conflict
After the latest incident on Thursday that left two tankers in flames in waters near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, Elizabeth Dickinson, senior analyst with International Crisis Group, warned the danger of an all-out conflict involving Iran is real.
In comments to AFP, Dickinson said that this is a dangerous moment in the region.
“Any miscalculation or misunderstanding risks a spiral toward more direct confrontation,” she told AFP.
“In the meantime, the region’s conflicts are increasingly polluted by the regional quagmire of tension between Iran on the one hand and the United States and its regional allies on another.”
Karen E. Young, resident scholar of American Enterprise Institute, expressed similar comments, emphasising that the risk factor continues to increase making the entire Arabian peninsula nearing conflict zone status.
Iran on Saturday summoned the British ambassador to Tehran after London blamed it for attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman.
The semi-official Iranian Students News Agency ISNA reported the ambassador was asked for an explanation and correction after Britain was the only nation to echo U.S. accusations.
British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt issued a statement on Friday blaming Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for the attacks, saying no other state or non-state actor could have been responsible.
Iran has denied any involvement.
