Tanker attacks seen as calibrated but risky Iranian response to US sanctions

GENEVA: If, despite its firm denials, Iran was behind attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf last week and a further four last month, they represent a calibrated yet risky pushback against a US sanctions squeeze, regional experts say.

They did not provide direct evidence of Iranian involvement, but the United States and Saudi Arabia have blamed Iran publicly for both sets of attacks.Whereas some US sources said they believed Iran encouraged allied militants or militia to carry out last month's attacks, the US military has released a video and still images which it says show Iran's Revolutionary Guards removing an unexploded limpet mine from one of the latest vessels to be targeted.

Iran's military said on Monday that if it decided to block the Strait of Hormuz, a vital gateway in the Gulf for the oil industry, it would do so publicly, and both Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani have said Iran does not want war."If attacked, we can make the maritime regions unsafe for the aggressors," said an Iranian official who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation.

Washington then sent an aircraft carrier, B-52 bombers and Patriot missiles to the region last month in a show of force against what US officials say are Iranian threats to its troops and interests there. A few days later, a rocket was fired near the US embassy in Baghdad, which had already evacuated non-emergency staff a week after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a surprise trip to Baghdad to talk to Iraqi officials about US concerns of threats from Iran-backed militias.

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