Another naval incident in the Gulf heightens the military tensions between Iran and Western powers
FOR the third time in as many months, the crew of an oil tanker found themselves at the centre of an international incident. The British Heritage, a vessel owned by BP, a British oil firm, was sailing east through the Strait of Hormuz on July 10th when three Iranian gunboats allegedly tried to halt its passage. They soon backed down and allowed the tanker to continue—but only because it was trailed by the HMS Montrose, a British warship.
After a year of restraint, Iran has begun to strike back. Until now, though, it has done so in ways that offered a dubious measure of deniability. Four oil tankers were sabotaged in May near the United Arab Emirates’ port of Fujairah, and two others were damaged by explosions in the Gulf of Oman last month. Diplomats in the Middle East have little doubt that Iran or its allies were responsible, and America has blamed Iran, but investigators have not yet assigned blame for either incident.
On the nuclear front, Iran has also started to ignore its own commitments under the 2015 agreement. First it broke a 300kg limit on the amount of low-enriched uranium it may stockpile. Then it started enriching the stuff to 5% purity, above the agreed-upon 3.67% limit. That is still far short of the 20% threshold that would put it on a quick path to weapons-grade uranium.
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