Iran Strongly Rejects US Claims Regarding Oil Tanker Attacks - Mission To UN

UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 14th June, 2019) Iran firmly rejects the remarks made by US Acting Representative to the United Nations Jonathan Cohen who claimed that the Islamic Republic is responsible for the attacks on oil tanker vessels in the Gulf of Oman, the Permanent Mission of Iran said in a press release.

Earlier in the day, two oil tankers were hit by explosions in the Gulf of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz. The cause of the incident remains unknown but US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in an impromptu press briefing immediately blamed Iran.

"The inflammatory remarks by the US representative against Iran at the UN Security Council on 13 June 2019 was another Iranophobic campaign. Iran categorically rejects the US unfounded claim with regard to 13 June oil tanker incidents and condemns it in the strongest possible terms," the release said on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, after the closed UN Security Council consultations that tackled the Gulf of Oman incident, Cohen said at a press stakeout that the United States assesses the incident as "yet another example of Iran's destabilizing activities" in the middle Eastern region.

In the release, Iran's mission urged the international community to prevent the United States and its allies from escalating tensions in the region.

The mission also said that Iran is concerned about the incident in the Gulf and is ready to take part in enhancing the security of strategic maritime passages as well as of the whole region.

Iran has denied any involvement in all of the recent attacks, and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Jawad Zarif earlier on Thursday called the timing of the latest incident "beyond suspicious" because it coincided with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to the Islamic Republic.