DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – An explosion hit a cargo ship from Israel leaving the Middle East on Friday, an unexplained explosion that renewed concerns about shipping safety amid growing tensions between the US and Iran.
According to the British maritime trade operations, which are managed by the British navy, the crew and the vessel were safe. The blast forced the vessel to drive to the nearest port.
At the site of the explosion, the Gulf of Oman, a series of explosions took place in 2019 that accused the US Navy of Iran against the backdrop of sharply rising threats between former President Donald Trump and Iranian leaders. Tehran has denied the allegations, which came after Trump dropped Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and imposed harsh sanctions on the country.
As the government of Joe Biden wants to rejoin Iran in recent weeks, Tehran has increased its transgressions of the nuclear deal to create leverage over Washington. In the agreement, Tehran agreed to limit uranium enrichment in exchange for lifting crippling sanctions.
Dryad Global, a maritime information firm, has identified the battered vessel as the MV Helios Ray, a cargo ship that is at the start of the Bahamian flag. Another private security officer, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, also identified the ship as the Helios Ray.
Satellite tracking data from the website MarineTraffic.com showed that the Helios ray almost entered the Arabian Sea around 0600 GMT before suddenly turning around and on its way back to the Strait of Hormuz. It still listed Singapore as its destination on its tracker.
While details of the blast remained unclear, two U.S. defense officials told the AP that the ship sustained two holes on its port side and two holes on the starboard side just above the waterline in the blast. Officials said it remained unclear what caused the holes. They spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to discuss unreleased information about the incidents.
In a United Nations ship database, the owners of the vessel are identified as a Tel Aviv firm called Ray Shipping Ltd. Calls to Ray Shipping called unanswered Friday.
Abraham Ungar (74), who goes to “Rami”, is the founder of Ray Shipping Ltd., and is known as one of the richest men in Israel. He earns his fortune in shipping and construction.
According to the Nikola Y. Vaptsarov Naval Academy, where Ungar provides support and maritime training, it owns dozens of car-carrying ships and employs thousands of engineers.
The U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet in Bahrain said it was “aware and monitoring” the situation.
Although the circumstances of the explosion are unclear, Dryad Global said it was very possible that the explosion stemmed from ‘asymmetric activities by the Iranian army’.
“While Iran is trying to put pressure on the United States to lift sanctions, it could possibly pursue a military diplomacy,” Dryad said. Iran did not immediately acknowledge the incident.
The blast on Friday is reminiscent of the summer of 2019, when the U.S. military blamed Iran for alleged attacks on two oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most strategic shipping lanes. In previous months, the U.S. has attributed a series of suspected attacks to Iran, including the use of sleepers – designed to magnetically attach to a ship’s hull – to paralyze four oil tankers from the nearby port of Fujairah in the Emirates.
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Associated Press authors Laurie Kellman in Tel Aviv, Israel and Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report.