Iran has been accused of being responsible for last Friday’s deadly drone attack on a Zodiac Maritime-controlled product tanker off the coast of Oman that killed two people.
The deaths on board the 49,992-dwt Mercer Street (built 2013) — the first confirmed human casualties in an ongoing series of tit-for-tat attacks by Iran and Israel on each other's shipping — could escalate a covert "shadow war" into something more overt and deadly, security analysts said over the weekend.
In the hours following the attack, the US, UK and Israel all said intelligence evidence pointed to an Iranian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) being used.
Iranian authorities have denied any involvement, describing the allegations that Iran carried out the attack as “baseless”.
“It’s not the first time that the Zionist regime occupying Jerusalem has made such empty accusations against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said.
Although headquartered in London, Zodiac Maritime is owned by Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said at a cabinet meeting that Iran “absolutely” was behind the attack against the Mercer Street.
The US Central Command said on Saturday said that initial indications “clearly point to a UAV-style attack”.
Grave mistake
According to a Washington Post report on Sunday, Bennett said Israel expected the international community to “make it clear to the Iranian regime that they have made a grave mistake”.
“We, in any case, know how to convey the message to Iran in our own ways,” he was reported as saying at a cabinet meeting.
Responses from the US and UK, while condemning the attacks, were more muted.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that upon review of the available information, "we are confident that Iran conducted this attack, which killed two innocent people, using one-way explosive UAVs, a lethal capability it is increasingly employing throughout the region”.
Blinken added that there was “no justification for this attack, which follows a pattern of attacks and other belligerent behaviour”.
UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab described the attack on the Liberian-flagged Mercer Street as “unlawful and callous”, and said UK assessments concluded that “it is highly likely one or more UAVs were used”.
“We believe this attack was deliberate, targeted and a clear violation of international law by Iran,” Raab said. “Iran must end such attacks, and vessels must be allowed to navigate freely in accordance with international law.”
Zodiac Maritime, which bareboat charters the Mercer Street from Japan’s Taiheiyo Kaiun, said on Friday that the ship was sailing under its own power to a safe location under escort by the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and the guided missile destroyer USS Mitscher.
US Navy explosives experts boarded the ship to ensure there was no additional danger to the crew, and were prepared to support an investigation into the attack, according to a statement released by US 5th Fleet.
According to ship tracking website VesselFinder, the Mercer Street arrived off Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday.
Managers at Taihei Kaiun were unavailable for comment on Monday.
