DUBAI, UAE – An Israeli-owned cargo ship that suffered a mysterious explosion in the Gulf of Oman arrived in the port of Dubai on Sunday to be repaired, days after the explosion revived concerns security on the waterways of the Middle East amid tensions with Iran.
Associated Press reporters saw the huge Israeli-owned MV Helios Ray sitting at the dry dock facilities in Dubai’s Rashid port. Although the crew was not unharmed in the explosion, the ship maintained two holes on the port side and two on the starboard side, just above the waterline, according to U.S. defense officials.
It is unclear what caused the blast, but the incident comes amid strong tensions between the US and Iran over its disagreement with the 2015 nuclear deal. Iran has tried to pressure the US administration. President Joe Biden to grant relief from the sanctions he received under the deal with world powers that former President Donald Trump abandoned.
From the shore, AP reporters could not immediately see damage to the ship. The dock blocked the view from the starboard side 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 floor, Queen Elizabeth 2. A UAE Coast Guard boat was seen sailing behind the ship, with vehicles from Dubai police and the UAE Armed Forces nearby.
Emirati officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the ship’s mooring in the country.
Friday’s explosion on the ship, a Bahamas-flagged, rolling and rolling cargo ship, recalled a series of attacks on foreign tankers in 2019 that the U.S. Navy blamed on Iran. Tehran denied any role in the alleged attacks, which took place near the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil point.
Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. and UN Gilad Erdan told Israeli Army Radio on Sunday that “it was no secret that the Iranians were trying to damage Israeli targets,” alleging that the explosion of the ship had the characteristics of previous Iranian attacks.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, Yemen’s Houthi rebels, backed by Iran, claimed responsibility for firing a ballistic missile and nine bomb-laden drones. in “sensitive places” in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, the night before. The group’s military spokesman, Yahia Sarei, added that six other explosive drones were targeting “military positions” in the southwestern cities of Abha and Khamis Mushait. The Saudi interception of the missile caused an apparent explosion over Riyadh that shocked residents and scattered shell debris, causing no casualties.
Helios Ray had unloaded cars at various ports in the Persian Gulf before leaving the Middle East for Singapore. The blast impacted as the ship left the Saudi port of Dammam for the Gulf of Oman, forcing it to head for Dubai, UAE, for inspection.
Iranian authorities have not made public comments about the ship. The country’s hardline newspaper Kayhan, whose editor-in-chief was appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, alleged that Helios Ray was “possibly” on an “espionage” mission in the region, without offering any evidence to support the claim. Sunday’s report speculated that the ship may have been “trapped in an ambush by a branch of the axis of resistance,” referring to Iranian representatives in the region.
Iran has also blamed Israel for a recent series of attacks, including a mysterious explosion last summer who destroyed an advanced centrifuge assembly plant at its Natanz nuclear facility and the murder of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a leading Iranian scientist who founded the Islamic Republic ‘s military nuclear program two decades ago.
Iran’s repeated vows to avenge Fakhrizadeh’s death have sparked alarms in Israel, especially as the Gulf sees Israeli traffic increase following the country’s normalization agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
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Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell and Malak Harb in Dubai, UAE, Ilan Ben Zion in Jerusalem and Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.