Red Sea

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Pictures of Board of Sabiti - Allegedly recorded were released on Friday by Iranian state TV -

Iranian-owned Oil Tanker has been attacked in the Red Sea off the coast of Saudi Arabia , Iran says foreign Ministry.

The Ministry said the Tanker Sabiti was hit twice, causing some damage.

Former Iranian national oil company (NIOC) said two explosions had been caused on the ship "the rocket".

However, he rejected to cite earlier reports as saying the rockets were likely to come from Saudi Arabia .

In the last few months, "other sabotage acts" had been performed, were examined against the Iranian tankers in the Red Sea , and this, foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said.

The Incident occurred around 04:50 (01:50 GMT), approximately 95 km (60 Miles ) from the Saudi city of Jeddah, Iran ' s Mehr news agency said.

Two of the reservoir tanks were hit, it added, causing damage measurement between 0. 5m and 1. 5m. There were no reports of injuries.

The Sabiti is sailing in the direction of The Gulf , said.

The reports have come from Iranian sources. There was no comment from Saudi officials.

Iranian state television earlier the ship identified as the Sinopa, But the NIOC later said it was Sabiti.

pictures Allegedly taken was published on Friday on Board of the Sabiti, the Iranian state television, show no visible signs of damage.

Has anything really happen?

Paul Adams , BBC Diplomatic correspondent

This story is about as clear as mud. It seemed to change. Two other ships were named the Sinopa and Sabiti. We had incident reports of rockets at the tankers, and to commit a prosecution brief against Saudi Arabia , in what was described as an "act of terrorism". This claim seems to have been deleted pretty quickly.

And crucially, there is no independent evidence at All That the ship was hit. Pictures were released showing later in The Morning , runs to nothing. And-most important-the two tankers are currently steaming at Full Speed in different directions, so there is no evidence that either vessel was in no way affected.

Publicly available ship-tracking records show both ships are currently in the Red Sea . The Sinopa turned his transmitter on at the beginning of This Week , for the First Time in More Than 50 days. The Sabiti, meanwhile, turned to his followers early Friday after nearly 60 days, without a gearbox.

to be fitted Under international regulations, all ships of a certain tonnage, with the Tracker, known as the automatic identification system (AIS). But ships are not required to have their AIS Switched On all the time.

A source in the maritime Analytics firm Windward it was usual, said the BBC, to disable Iranian Tanker AIS to avoid detection, to escape often, international sanctions or harassment of Saudi Arabia .

Due to the safety regulations must have the vessels on their AIS when they are in the vicinity of the Suez Canal . The Luv-a source said, Sabiti behavior was unusual because, if you have been turned on through the channel, it just switches on his AIS, if the rules require, But in this case, the AIS had, hundreds of miles from Suez to the "dark" for two months.

Michelle Bock man, an analyst at shipping newspaper Lloyd's list, told the BBC that the Tanker , depending on what it was carrying was "probably" oil to Syria.

"This really is, together with China, the only market for Iranian crude oil now, since the United States tightened sanctions in may," said Mrs. Bock man. "We see how geopolitics plays in the global shipping industry and the Tanker markets, and this is just an extension of the instability that we see in the region. "

The latest incident came amid heightened tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia in the last few months.

in the Last month, 18 drones, and seven cruise missiles struck a major oil field and processing facility in Saudi Arabia blamed Iran for The Attack .

And the US representative said that Iran was responsible for attacks on two oil tankers in The Gulf in June and July, as well as attacks on four more tankers in may.

Iran denies participation in all incidents.

iran, shipping industry, gulf crisis, saudi arabia

Source of news: bbc.com