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ADNOC ships attacked
The United Arab Emirates accused Iran of attacking two vessels linked to Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) while they transited the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday evening, August 13, with no injuries reported and the situation brought under control.
“The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the attack as a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2817”
The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the attack as a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2817 concerning freedom of navigation and said the UAE called for Iran to stop its aggressive attacks and ensure the complete, unconditional reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
ADNOC confirmed that “two of its vessels were attacked while transiting” the waterway on Thursday evening and said the situation was “brought under control”.
A separate report said a vessel came under fire from an “unknown projectile” while transiting the Hormuz Strait on its way out of the area, causing damage to the engine room and resulting in a casualty among the crew, with no environmental impact reported so far.
Competing claims and reactions
Iran did not immediately comment on the attack or the UAE’s claims, and the Emirati Foreign Ministry said attempts by Iran to use the Strait of Hormuz as a tool of economic coercion amount to “piracy”.
In a separate development, the UAE imposed an indefinite trade embargo on Iran after accusing Iranian forces of firing two ballistic missiles at the country, with Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejecting the accusation as “baseless” and spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei suggesting it was a “false flag operation”.
The UAE Ministry of Defence said its air defences detected two ballistic missiles launched from Iran, with one falling outside the country’s territorial waters and the other landing within them, and it said the missiles were “targeting maritime traffic”.
Mark Kimmitt, a retired US general and former assistant secretary of state, told Al Jazeera that “the UAE’s trade embargo could hit Iran harder than anything Washington has imposed,” while also saying he expects a “wait-and-see” approach from other Gulf states.
Embargo, navigation disruption
The UAE announced it had suspended all trade and financial exchanges with Iran until further notice, and the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs said “All trade, commercial exchanges and financial transactions with Iran have been halted until further notice.”
“All trade, commercial exchanges and financial transactions with Iran have been halted until further notice”
The same Al Jazeera report linked the embargo to the expiry of a June 17 memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran, saying it lapsed on Monday with little prospect of being renewed, while the UAE said the decision was made “light of escalations that undermine peace and security in the region”.
Al Jazeera also reported that shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remained severely disrupted, with daily vessel crossings in the single digits, down from more than 130 a day before the United States and Israel launched the war on Iran on February 28.
In the background of the navigation dispute, the UKMTO said it advised vessels transiting the strait to exercise caution and to report any suspicious activity after a vessel was struck by an “unknown projectile,” with authorities investigating who or what was responsible.
