DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – A cargo ship owned by Israelis and sustained a mysterious explosion in the Gulf of Oman arrived at the port of Dubai on Sunday for repairs, days after the explosion raised concerns in the Middle Eastern waterways revived amid heightened tensions with Iran.
Associated Press journalists saw the large Israeli MV Helios Ray sitting in dry dock facilities in Port Rashid in Dubai. Although the crew was unharmed in the blast, the vessel sustained two holes on its port side and two on the starboard side just above the waterline, according to U.S. defense officials.
It remains unclear what caused the explosion, but the incident comes amid rising tensions between the US and Iran over the unbundling of the 2015 nuclear deal. Iran has sought to put pressure on President Joe Biden’s government to ease the sanctions it has received in line with world powers overthrowing former President Donald Trump.
From the shore, AP journalists could not immediately see damage to the vessel. The dock blocked the view on the starboard side to the waterline and the port side could only be seen from a distance. The ship was anchored near Dubai, Queen Elizabeth’s flooring business. An Emirati coastguard vessel was seen sailing behind the ship, with vehicles belonging to Dubai police and Emirati armed forces parked nearby.
Emirates officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the vessel that arrived in the country.
Friday’s explosion on the ship, a Bahamas roll – up and unloading vehicle, recalled a series of attacks on foreign oil tankers in 2019 that accused the US Navy of Iran. Tehran denies any role in the alleged assaults, which took place near the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil spill.
The Israeli ambassador to the US and the UN, Gilad Erdan, told Israeli army radio on Sunday that “it was no secret that the Iranians were trying to harm Israeli targets”, claiming the explosion on the ship had the characteristics of previous Iranian attacks behave.
Meanwhile on Sunday, Yemen’s Iranian – backed Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for firing a ballistic missile and nine bombed-out drones. the previous evening in “sensitive areas” in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh. The group’s military spokesman Yahia Sarei added that six more explosive devices had targeted ‘military positions’ in the southwestern cities of Abha and Khamis Mushait. The Saudi Arabian interception of the missile caused an apparent explosion over Riyadh, which frightened residents and scattered shell debris without causing casualties.
The Helios Ray unloaded cars at various ports in the Persian Gulf before moving from the Middle East to Singapore. The blast took place when the ship from the Saudi port Dammam sailed from the Gulf of Oman and forced it to turn to Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, for inspection.
Iranian authorities have not publicly commented on the ship. The country’s hardline Kayhan, whose editor-in-chief was appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, claims the Helios Ray was ‘possibly’ on a ‘espionage mission’ in the region, without providing any evidence to support the claim. The Sunday report speculates that the ship may have been ambushed by a branch of the resistance, citing Iranian proxies in the region.
Iran also blamed Israel for a recent series of attacks, including a mysterious explosion last summer which destroyed an advanced centrifuge assembly plant at its Natanz nuclear plant and the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a top Iranian scientist who founded the Islamic Republic’s military nuclear program two decades ago.
Iran’s repeated vows to avenge the assassination of Fakhrizadeh have caused alarm in Israel, especially as the Gulf sees an increase in Israeli traffic following the normalization of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
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Associated Press authors Jon Gambrell and Malak Harb in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Ilan Ben Zion in Jerusalem and Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.