Iran dismissed as "baseless" Friday US accusations that it carried out twin attacks that left two tankers ablaze in the Gulf of Oman, escalating tensions across the region and sending world oil prices soaring.
This series of unfortunate events in Iran follows an apparent Iranian attack (tip to Instapundit) on Gulf tankers in May:
As the strategic port of Shahid Rajaee, north of the Strait of Hormuz, was still dealing with the effects of a huge fire that caused serious destruction, Iranian media reported that six Iranian ships were ablaze in several ports in the southern part of the country.
America believes Iran attacked the two additional tankers. Iran denied laying mines in the Gulf in the 1980s “tanker war” even after we captured the ship laying mines. So Iranian denials now don’t mean much to me.
So now we have minor attacks on tankers—by error or intent, followed by retaliation, followed by serious attacks on two tankers. And throw in a drone strike on a Saudi pipeline that inflicted minor damage.
I’ve been warning for a while that we could get another tanker war.
UPDATE: Add a cruise missile attack on a Saudi airport.
UPDATE: Iran’s actions make it harder for them to prove to Europeans that we are wrong about Iran’s aggression.
To play the victim role Iran needs to act less predatory. The fact that Iran is launching shots across the bow shows how much sanctions are squeezing Iran.
Will Iran lash out overtly and spark combat?
Also, it is possible that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards are launching the attacks while Iran’s Navy is trying to cope with the attacks—like trying to remove an unexplored limpet mine from a tanker. Although I’m not sure from news just whose assets are doing what.
If it comes to open shooting we should focus on the Revolutionary Guards.
UPDATE: A “drive by” mortar attack on a base US forces use in Iraq is no doubt traceable back to Iran’s pet militias in Iraq.
UPDATE: I read that Revolutionary Guards removed the mine. So maybe they were trying to remove evidence. Or maybe the Guards have factions of varying jihadi fanaticism.
UPDATE: And again, Iran has been at war with America a long time.
NOTE: I took some updates to a past post on tanker attack events and adapted them here for convenience.
