Foreign Office ‘urgently investigating’ hijacking in the Gulf of Oman
The Foreign Office is “urgently investigating” a potential hijacking off the coast of the UAE, a spokesperson said this evening.
Earlier today the UK’s maritime trade authority issued a warning over the incident, which took place near Fujairah in the Gulf of Oman.
Later it upgraded the incident to a “potential hijacking” and warned other vessels to “exercise extreme caution when transiting this area”.
It gave no further details about the incident, or the vessels involved.
But maritime sources told Reuters that the vessel was the Panama-flagged asphalt/bitumen tanker Asphalt Princess, adding that it was believed that Iranian-backed forces had seized the vessel.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards denied that Iranian forces or allies were involved in the hijacking. In a statement, they said.
“According to information from security sources, Iran’s armed forces and all branches of the Islamic Resistance in the Middle East have nothing to do with the incident in the Gulf of Oman.”
In a statement this evening, a Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We are urgently investigating an incident on a vessel off the UAE coast.”
The US State Department said that it was too early to offer a judgement on the incident.
The Gulf of Oman links the Arabian Sea to the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important shipping lanes and the conduit for about 20 per cent of the world’s oil supplies.
In recent years the area has been stirred up by repeated attacks on shipping.
Today’s incident comes less than a week after an oil tanker was attacked by a drone off Oman, killing two people, one of whom was British.
Yesterday Iran’s ambassador to the UK was today summoned to the Foreign Office in the wake of the attack.
More to follow.