DUBAI: A Japanese tanker, attacked in the Gulf in an incident that sparked a new standoff between Washington and Tehran, “arrived safely” Sunday at an anchorage off the UAE, its management said.
The Kokuka Courageous was carrying highly flammable methanol through the Gulf of Oman on Thursday when it and the Norwegian-operated Front Altair were rocked by explosions.
The US and Saudi Arabia have accused Iran of responsibility.
“Kokuka Courageous has arrived safely at the designated anchorage at Sharjah,” an emirate neighboring Dubai, the vessel’s Singapore-based BSM Ship Management said in a statement Sunday.
The crew, who remained on board, were “safe and well,” it said, adding that a damage assessment and preparations for transferring the ship’s cargo would start “once the port authorities have completed their standard security checks and formalities.”
BSM Ship Management had said earlier Kokuka Courageous was heading toward an anchorage on the eastern coast of the United Arab Emirates, facing the Gulf of Oman.
The other ship, the Front Altair, has left Iran’s territorial waters, multiple sources said Saturday.
It was “heading toward the Fujairah-Khor Fakkan area in the United Arab Emirates,” the ports chief of Iran’s southern province of Hormozgan told the semi-official news agency ISNA.
A spokeswoman for Frontline Management, the Norwegian company which owns the ship, said “all 23 crew members of the tanker departed Iran” and flew to Dubai on Saturday.
The US military on Friday released grainy footage it said showed an Iranian patrol boat removing an “unexploded limpet mine” from the Japanese vessel.
Tehran has vehemently denied any involvement.
Iran has repeatedly warned in the past that it could block the strategic Hormuz Strait in a relatively low-tech, high-impact countermeasure to any attack by the United States.
Doing so would disrupt oil tankers traveling out of the Gulf region to the Indian Ocean and global export routes.
Damaged Japanese tanker arrives at UAE anchorage
Damaged Japanese tanker arrives at UAE anchorage
- “Kokuka Courageous has arrived safely at the designated anchorage at Sharjah,” according to a statement
- The other ship, the Front Altair, has left Iran’s territorial waters, multiple sources said Saturday
Iraqi Kurdistan leader welcomes Syrian decree recognizing Kurdish rights
- Remarks followed issuance of presidential decree by Syrian President Ahmad Al-Sharaa
- Decree affirmed Syrian Kurds form integral part of the Syrian people
IRBIL: The President of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, Nechirvan Barzani, on Saturday welcomed a new Syrian presidential decree recognizing the country’s Kurdish population, Syrian state media reported.
Barzani described the move as a significant political and legal step toward building a new Syria, the Syrian Arab News Agency added.
In a statement, Barzani expressed support for efforts aimed at establishing a Syrian state that represents all its communities without discrimination or marginalization.
His remarks followed the issuance on Friday of a presidential decree by Syrian President Ahmad Al-Sharaa.
The decree affirmed that Syrian Kurds are an integral part of the Syrian people and that their cultural and linguistic identity forms an inseparable component of Syria’s unified and diverse national identity, SANA reported.
The decree also formally recognized the Kurdish language and restores Syrian citizenship to all Kurdish Syrians.
The announcement came after clashes erupted last week in the northern city of Aleppo, leaving at least 23 people dead, according to Syria’s Health Ministry, and forcing more than 150,000 people to flee two Kurdish-run areas of the city.
The fighting ended after Kurdish fighters withdrew and Syrian army forces retook control of the area.
