Iran Crisis - 11 October 2019

According to an Iranian state television report on October 11, by citing the Iranian National Oil Company, two anti-ship missiles of unknown origin attacked an Iranian tanker named "SINOPA" near Jeddah Port near Saudi Arabia. The Iranian tanker was seriously damaged. Two large tanks on the tanker were destroyed and crude oil flowed out of the gap. The relevant sea areas had been dyed by dark oil. Fortunately, the raging fire on the tanker caused by the missile attack was soon extinguished. As of the Iranian national television night news broadcast, there had been no reports of casualties of Iranian crew members. The sea of incidents is less than 100 kilometers away from the port city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.Iran severely condemned the organization or country that launched the attack and called it "Terrorist action."

Affected by this incident, international crude oil prices soared from the evening of the 11th. Among them, London Brent crude oil futures prices rose nearly 3%, reaching 60.46 US dollars per barrel, while US crude oil futures also rose significantly, more than 2%, the latest offer is 54.47 US dollars per barrel.

Reuters quoted AxiTrader Asia Pacific market strategist Stephen Ince as saying that the world's energy industry is still fragile today, given the recent impact in the Middle East, which has a large impact on the region's crude oil output, so international crude oil The price will fluctuate drastically because of even a small amount of things.

With the attacked Iranian tanker still deep in the Red Sea, it may change the channel in the future. There is no news that any country has provided the necessary assistance for this already severely damaged Iranian tanker.

According to preliminary investigations, the Iranian side said that the two missiles that attacked Iranian tankers flew from east to west, so Iran believes that the most likely attack on this eastern attack is Saudi Arabia. This accusation seems probable, because in September Saudi Arabia's crude oil production facilities were attacked by unidentified drones, and the losses were heavy. Saudi Arabia's daily crude oil production has nearly doubled. At that time, the countries led by the United States accused Iran of being responsible, but Iran denied this. Now, a similar incident occurs, and it is inevitable that there is no doubt that it is a malicious retaliatory attack in Saudi Arabia.

An Iranian government spokesman has described as "cowardly" an attack on its oil tanker, which was hit in Red Sea waters off the coast of Saudi Arabia. "Iran is avoiding haste, carefully examining what has happened and probing facts," spokesman Ali Rabei was 11 October 2019 quoted as saying by the official news agency, IRNA. He said Iran would respond after the facts had been studied. "An appropriate response will be given to the designers of this cowardly attack, but we will wait until all aspects of the plot are clarified," he said.

"Piracy and mischief on international waterways aimed at making commercial shipping insecure will not go unanswered," said Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran's top security body, according to Fars.

Political risk consultancy Eurasia Group said it did not have firm evidence about who may have been behind the incident. "The proximity of the tanker at the time of the attack to Saudi Arabia's Jeddah port might imply that the missiles could possibly have been launched from the kingdom. Another plausible theory is that it was an Israeli sabotage operation... The purpose would be to disrupt Iranian tanker activity in the Red Sea corridor as it heads towards the Suez Canal. A third possibility would be that the attack was conducted by a terrorist group," Eurasia said in a statement.