Iran Announces Responsibility for Maintaining Hormuz Security

Earlier today, Iran announced that it was responsible for maintaining the security of the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf.

State radio quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi saying that blaming Tehran for attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman was alarming.

"We are in charge of maintaining security of the Strait and we rescued the crew of those attacked tankers in the shortest possible time ... U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's accusations towards Iran is alarming," he added.

Reuters quoted sources saying that the blast on the Front Altair, which caught fire and sent a huge plume of smoke into the air, may have been caused by a magnetic mine. The firm that chartered the Kokuka Courageous tanker said it was hit by a suspected torpedo, “but a person with knowledge of the matter said torpedoes were not used”.

The United States accused Iran for attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman yesterday, an incident which led to a surge in oil prices.

Some explosions, whose causes are not clear yet, forced the crews to abandon ship and leave both the Norwegian-owned Front Altair and Japanese-owned Kokuka Courageous adrift in waters between Gulf Arab states and Iran.

The U.S. military released a video late on Thursday for Iran's Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) removing an unexploded mine from the side of the Japanese-owned oil tanker. The U.S. military's Central Command also released photographs showing the apparent mine, which was attached to the side of a ship magnetically, before it was removed later in the day.

The latest blasts came one month after sabotage attacks on vessels off the Fujairah emirate, one of the world's largest bunkering hubs. Iran has always denied responsibility of the attacks.

According to Reuters, almost a fifth of the world’s oil passes through the Strait - some 17.2 million barrels per day (bpd). Consumption was about 100 million bpd in 2017, data from analytics firm Vortexa showed.

Brent crude futures rose 0.6% to $61.69 per barrel in Asian trade this morning, having gained 2.2% the previous day, though at one point they had surged as much as 4.5% in the wake of the attacks.