An American team of investigators has reached an initial assessment that Iran was behind the sabotage of four vessels off the coast of the United Arab Emirates.
A military team, tasked by the UAE to investigate the damage, found that Iranian or Iranian-backed proxies used explosives Sunday to blow large holes in four ships, a US official said according to The Associated Press Monday.
The official was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Two Saudi oil tankers, a Norwegian-flagged vessel, and a bunkering tanker flagged in Sharjah, one of the UAE's seven emirates, all suffered similar damage Sunday.
The US has warned ships that "Iran or its proxies" could be targeting maritime traffic in the region, and America has moved additional ships and aircraft into the region.
The incident comes after months of increasing diplomatic and economic pressure on Iran, which the US accuses of threatening American interests and allies in the region.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry called the incidents “worrisome and dreadful” and called for an investigation.
A senior Iranian lawmaker said “saboteurs from a third country” could be behind it, after saying on Sunday the incident showed the security of Gulf states was fragile.
His remarks drew sharp criticism, forcing him to later clarify that his country was not behind the attack.
Tehran is keen on the security of the region and it has signed security agreements with regional countries in the 1990s, he added, according to the IRNA news agency.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said the UAE incident “has a negative impact on maritime transportation security” and asked regional countries to be “vigilant against destabilizing plots of foreign agents”, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported.
Media affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards hailed the sabotage attack by “sons of the resistance”.
