The Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, accused Iran of being behind the alleged “attacks” perpetrated on Thursday against two cargo ships in the waters of the Gulf of Oman.
“The assessment of the United States Government is that the Islamic Republic of Iran is responsible for the attacks that took place today in the Gulf of Oman,” Pompeo said in a brief appearance before the media.
The head of diplomacy made these accusations hours after two ships, one owned by a Norwegian shipowner and another Japanese, suffered shocks and explosions on Thursday as they left the Strait of Hormuz, some 30 miles off the Iranian coast.
Pompeo justified his accusation in the “intelligence reports, the weapons used, the level of knowledge necessary to execute the operation, the similar attacks against ships perpetrated by Iran recently and the fact that no rebel group in the area has the resources to act with such a level of sophistication. “
The official said that these are just the last examples of attacks executed by the Iranian Government and its followers against the interests of the US and its allies, and then listed all the aggressions suffered by the country in the region in the last months of which it does directly responsible to Iran.
Pompeo also recalled how Tehran threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz after Washington toughened the embargo against oil from Iran and said that with these attacks Iran intends to “fulfill this promise.”
“If they are considered as a whole, these attacks without prior provocation represent a clear threat to peace and security, a clear violation of the freedom of navigation and an unacceptable campaign to escalate tensions on the part of Iran,” Pompeo concluded.
The official also described as insulting the fact that one of the vessels attacked is Japanese, a country that has offered to mediate between the United States and Iran, an offer that has already been rejected by Tehran.
Thursday’s incident comes at a time of growing tension between the two countries that has led the White House to use these attacks as one of the causes that justify the increase of the US military presence in the region and the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia, a transaction that does not have the backing of Congress.
