Qatar blames Iran for striking tanker in strait as huge crowds mourn Khamenei
July 7 (Reuters) – Two tankers, including an LNG carrier, were hit in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, as large crowds mourning Iran’s slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei filled the holy city of Qom.
Qatar blamed Iran for an attack on Al Rekayyat, a giant Qatari liquefied natural gas tanker that was hit by a drone overnight, causing a fire in the engine room.
The crew was safe and being evacuated, but maritime safety sources with knowledge of the incident told Reuters that the fire on board could have put the ship at risk of explosion.
Maritime security sources said a Saudi-flagged crude oil tanker, believed to be the supertanker Wedyan, was also damaged off the coast of Oman. The reason was not immediately clear.
“Mayday mayday mayday. This is the LNG ship Al Rekayyat ship Al Rekayyat. We are being hit by the drone on the port side, at the top of the engine room,” the captain of the Qatari tanker said in a recorded radio conversation reviewed by Reuters. “Situation: engine room filled with fire and smoke. No further damage detected.”
Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari described the incident as an unacceptable attack on the security of international navigation and global energy supplies and a clear violation of international law.
He called on Iran to immediately stop actions threatening regional security and maritime navigation, and said Tehran bore full legal responsibility for the attack and any resulting damage or consequences.
There was no comment or claim of responsibility from Tehran. A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said initial indications were that Iran opened fire on two commercial ships.
The incidents were the first attacks reported in the strait since mourning for Khamenei began last week; It was evidence of continued distrust on Gulf ships more than four months after the United States and Israel launched a war they said would stop Iran from threatening its neighbors.
HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS TOOK TO THE STREETS IN QOM
Iran’s religious rulers have wielded newfound control over the world’s most important energy shipping route, aiming to establish a permanent system to collect fees in what would represent a major shift in the balance of power in a region where Washington has long acted as guarantor of security.
The country’s leadership used the mourning period to demonstrate its control after Khamenei was killed along with his daughter, grandson, son-in-law and daughter-in-law on the first day of the war.
The coffins of the slain leader and his family were driven into the streets of the seminary town of Qom on Tuesday; Here, hundreds of thousands of people carried flags and banners comparing Khamenei to the martyrs whose deaths formed the basis of the Shiite sect.
They chanted and vowed to avenge Khamenei. Some had signs and banners that read “KILL TRUMP.”
A similar massive funeral procession took place on the streets of Tehran on Monday, following more solemn prayer events that began last Friday and attracted the attention of Iranian dignitaries and dignitaries from abroad. Officials say the leader’s body will be taken to Shiite holy cities in neighboring Iraq, then brought to Iran and buried in a medieval mausoleum.
TRUMP: ‘MAKE A DEAL OR WE WILL FINISH THE JOB’
The war was paused under an interim peace deal reached last month that aimed to provide a 60-day window for negotiations on a permanent deal. A round of indirect talks in Qatar last week ended with no signs of progress towards a lasting peace.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to continue bombing, most recently on Monday when he told reporters in the Oval Office: “We’re either going to make a deal or we’re going to finish the job… We can destroy their bridges in an hour, we can take out their energy sources.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said that according to the provisions of the temporary ceasefire agreement, negotiations on the final agreement “will not begin if the threats continue.”
“Respect your signature,” he wrote over the X.
Oil prices, which have returned to pre-war levels since last month’s interim agreement allowing ships to pass through the strait, rose nearly 1% on Tuesday following events in the waterway.
In launching the war four months ago, Trump said his goals were to destroy Iran’s nuclear and missile programs, end its ability to threaten its neighbors and create conditions for Iranians to overthrow their leaders.
None of those goals have been met, but Washington says a permanent deal would halt the program by which Iran says it could build a nuclear weapon, which it says Iran never sought.
Despite five days of mourning, there is still no public trace of Khamenei’s son and successor Mojtaba, who is believed to be disfigured due to the injuries he received in the same attack and has not been shown in any footage since the start of the war. The slain leader’s other three sons prayed at the coffin on Sunday.
Iranian leaders cited mass funeral gatherings following US-Israeli attacks as evidence of national unity; But it is difficult to assess how deep this loyalty runs in a country where media and communications are tightly controlled.
Just weeks before the start of the war, Iranian authorities killed thousands of demonstrators to suppress some of the largest anti-government protests in the country’s history, but there has been no sign of organized opposition in Iran since the war began.
(Reporting by a Reuters team and Reuters bureaus in TehranWriting by Peter Graff; Editing by Aidan Lewis and Ros Russell)
