DUBAI, UAE – An Israeli-owned cargo ship that suffered a mysterious explosion in the Gulf of Oman came to Dubai’s port for repairs on Sunday, days after the explosion revived security concerns on the East Waterways In the middle, amid heightened tensions with Iran.
Associated Press journalists saw Israel-owned MV Helios Ray sitting at the dry docks in Dubai’s Rashid Harbor. Although the crew was unharmed in the explosion, the ship sustained two holes on its port side and two on the starboard side just above the waterline, according to US defense officials.
It remains unclear what caused the blast, but the incident comes amid sharp rising tensions between the United States and Iran over its 2015 nuclear deal. Iran has tried to pressure President Joe Biden’s administration to grant the sanctions it received in the basis of the agreement with the world powers that former President Donald Trump abandoned.
From the shore, AP journalists could not immediately see the ship’s damage. The dock blocked the starboard view of the ship to the waterline, and the port side could only be seen from a distance. The ship was anchored near Dubai’s floating hotel, Queen Elizabeth 2. An Emirati coastguard ship was seen sailing behind the ship, with Dubai police and Emirati Armed Forces vehicles parked nearby.
Emirati officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the ship’s docking in the country.
Friday’s explosion on the ship, a Bahamian-flagged rolling cargo ship, recalled a series of attacks on foreign oil tankers in 2019 that the US Navy blamed on Iran. Tehran has denied any role in the suspected attacks near the Hormuz Strait, a key oil point.
Israeli Ambassador to the United States and the United Nations Gilad Erdan told Israeli Army Radio on Sunday that “it is no secret that Iranians are trying to harm Israeli targets,” claiming that the explosion on the ship had the distinctive signs of previous Iranian attacks.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, Houthi rebels, backed by Iran, claimed responsibility for firing a ballistic missile and nine bomb-laden drones. at “sensitive sites” in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, the night before. The group’s military spokesman, Yahia Sarei, added that six other explosive drones had targeted “military positions” in the southwestern cities of Abha and Khamis Mushait. The Saudi missile interception triggered an apparent explosion over Riyadh that stunned residents and scattered shell debris, causing no casualties.
Helios Ray had unloaded cars in various ports in the Persian Gulf before leaving the Middle East for Singapore. The blast struck as the ship sailed from the Saudi port of Dammam in the Gulf of Oman, forcing it to head to Dubai, UAE, for inspection.
Iranian authorities have not publicly commented on the ship. The country’s hardline daily Kayhan, whose editor-in-chief was named by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, claimed that Helios Ray was “possible” on an “espionage” mission in the region, without providing evidence to support the claim. . Sunday’s report speculated that the ship could have been “ambushed by a branch of the resistance axis”, referring to Iranian officials in the region.
Iran blames Israel for recent series of attacks, including mysterious explosion last summer which destroyed an advanced centrifuge assembly plant at the Natanz nuclear plant and killed 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 killing of Fakhrizadeh have sparked alarm in Israel, especially as the Gulf sees an increase in Israeli traffic following the country’s normalization agreements with the UAE and Bahrain.
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Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell and Malak Harb from Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, Ilan Ben Zion from Jerusalem and Samy Magdy from Cairo contributed to this report.