The United Kingdom joined Israel on Sunday in alleging Iran conducted a deadly drone strike on an oil tanker off the coast of Oman in the Arabian Sea, pressurizing Tehran, as it denied its involvement in the attack.
Calling it an “unlawful and callous attack,” British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said his country and its allies planned a coordinated response over the strike on Thursday night on an oil tanker Mercer Street. The drone strike marked the first-known lethal attack after years of assaults on commercial shipping in the region linked to tensions with Iran over its unsuccessful nuclear deal.
Israeli PM Naftali Bennett went further than Raab in comments on Sunday at a Cabinet meeting, making a point to stare directly into the camera and warn: “We know, at any rate, know how to convey the message to Iran in our own way.”
The drone strike blasted a hole through the top of the oil tanker’s bridge, where the captain and crew command the ship, a US official said. The official said a probe is underway. The blast killed two crew members from the United Kingdom and Romania.
