Outgoing President Hassan Rouhani has said Iran opened its first oil terminal in the Gulf of Oman, a move that will allow it to avoid using the Strait of Hormuz shipping route that has been a focus of regional tension for decades.
Iran is set to start loading crude oil at the Jask oil terminal on the Gulf Oman as early as July 19, adding its first export terminal outside the strategic Strait of Hormuz leading to the Persian Gulf.
Work on fencing along Pakistan’s border with Iran is underway and will be completed within a year, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed said on Monday.
Senior Iraqi lawmaker confirmed that attack on commercial tankers in the Gulf of Oman was US-Israel pre-planned scenario.
China urges all sides to exercise restraint and ease tension in the Gulf region, a senior Chinese diplomat said on Tuesday, amid a standoff between Iran and United States following attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman.
John Bowden, staff writer of The Hill, a top US political website worried about growing tensions in the Middle East and the Gulf of Oman and said, "After the attack on oil tankers in the Gulf, we are not witnessing good events in this area. These tensions will make way for diplomacy and bring stability to the region."
The two oil tankers crippled in attacks in the Gulf of Oman last week that Washington and Riyadh have blamed on Iran are being assessed off the coast off the United Arab Emirates before their cargos are unloaded, the ships’ operators said on Sunday.
Saudi Arabia’s crown prince blamed Iran for attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman and called on the international community to take a “decisive stand” but said in an interview published on Sunday that the kingdom does not want a war in the region; Reuters reported.
Prior to false statements by British foreign secretary in blind compliance with American officials in pinning the blame of the oil tankers’ explosion on Iran, the British envoy to Iran was summoned by the Iranian foreign ministry.
Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders came out swinging against Washington’s effort to pin blame on Iran for purported attacks on tanker ships in the Gulf of Oman, warning they are being used as a “pretext for war”.
