Two oil tankers carrying Saudi Arabian oil were targeted moments apart in the Strait of Hormuz

🔸Global shipping observers say that two supertankers carrying oil from Saudi Arabia were hit by unidentified projectiles a few minutes apart late on Monday, the 9th of Shahrivar, as they passed through the Strait of Hormuz.

🔸According to Reuters, the Greek maritime security company “Marisks” said on Tuesday, the 10th of Shahrivar, that the supertanker “Cedar,” carrying Saudi Arabian crude oil under the flag of that country, was hit by unidentified projectiles at 19:52 on Monday, Greenwich Mean Time, about 16 nautical miles northeast of Qalhat, Oman.

🔸The maritime security company Vanguards Tak has also said that the tanker “Senegal Prosperity” under the flag of Liberia was hit by three unidentified projectiles a few minutes later, about 17 nautical miles east of Qalhat.

🔸Earlier, the UK Maritime Trade Operations organization had reported an attack on this tanker and said that three projectiles struck it as it was leaving the Strait of Hormuz.

🔸According to reports, the crews of these two tankers are safe, and both were stopped a short distance from each other.

🔸Kepler company data shows that each of these tankers had loaded 2 million barrels of Saudi crude oil from the Jayyimah port in the Persian Gulf last week.

🔸Marisks, the Greek company, said: “The nearly simultaneous occurrence of these two attacks indicates a further increase in the threat environment along the route through the Strait of Hormuz.”

🔸These attacks occurred almost at the same time as statements by Donald Trump, the president of the United States, who said he is “taking charge” of the Strait of Hormuz and that every night “30 ships” pass through that waterway. A matter that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps denies.

🔸Trump’s statements about the Strait of Hormuz came after a new round of direct clashes between the two countries.

🔸American forces targeted the island of Larak on Sunday night near the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. Central Command headquarters, CENTCOM, said the attack was a “precise and limited” one against Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps mine-laying forces, which, according to the United States, posed an imminent threat to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

🔸The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps confirmed the occurrence of the attack and the casualties resulting from it, and hours later Iranian media reported missile and drone attacks on U.S. bases in the region.

🔸With the renewed escalation of Iran–U.S. tensions, Brent’s price rose by nearly three percent on Monday to $90.49, and on Tuesday, with the continuation of the upward trend, it reached about $91.15 per barrel.