DUBAI – A drone strike on gas vessels in Egypt’s Mediterranean port of Damietta signalled a potential new front in the US-Iran war, raising the prospect of threats to navigation through the Suez Canal, a last remaining safe export route for Saudi oil.
The Egyptian Cabinet said on July 30 that an initial investigation showed that an unidentified drone caused a fire on July 29 on two vessels at Damietta port, near the Suez Canal, which links the Mediterranean with the Red Sea.
No group has claimed responsibility, the Cabinet said, adding that authorities were taking measures to protect Egypt’s national security.
Water jets are fired at a gas tanker after a drone strike, according to maritime security firm Ambrey, at Damietta port, Egypt, on July 29.
PHOTO: SOCIAL MEDIA VIA REUTERS
Trading sources familiar with the incident said the drone hit US-owned gas storage tanker Energos Winter, causing a fire that spread to another vessel.
Overnight, the US military said it struck Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ military command centres and drone facilities after Tehran fired at US forces in the region.
Iranian state media, quoting the Guards, said three civilians were killed and two children wounded in US strikes on Qeshm Island, while three Guards members were killed in Zanjan province.
The governor of Khuzestan province, cited by Iranian state media, said two student dormitory complexes in the southwestern city of Ahvaz were damaged in the overnight attacks.
A still image from video shows rescuers clearing rubble to search for victims, following a strike in Qeshm, Iran.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it struck the US-run Azraq base in Jordan in response to the US strikes.
“With the help of God, the aggressor will be punished today,” it said earlier in a statement carried by state media.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment about damage at the Azraq base.
Smoke rising on July 30 after reports of multiple US strikes on the city of Ahvaz, in Iran’s Khuzestan province.
PHOTO: SOCIAL MEDIA VIA REUTERS
US bases in Jordan have lately become primary Iranian targets. Jordan’s armed forces said earlier on July 30 they had intercepted five Iranian missiles.
An Iranian attack also hit a building owned by a Chinese company in northern Kuwait, killing a worker and inflicting significant damage, Kuwait’s Defence Ministry said.
Saudis joins US strikes
In a first in the five-month war, Saudi Arabia on July 29 publicly joined strikes alongside US forces, targeting Iran-aligned groups in eastern Iraq, in retaliation for drone attacks on Saudi oil targets launched from Iraq.
After the joint attacks, Saudi Arabia’s defence minister met Vice-President J.D. Vance in Washington on July 29 to urge the Trump administration not to escalate the conflict further, two sources told Reuters.
The war began in February, when the US and Israel launched a bombing campaign in Iran that President Donald Trump said would last only a few weeks. A temporary ceasefire agreement in June collapsed amid renewed fighting over the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway that Iran says it now controls.
The latest strikes in Iraq and Egypt threatened to draw more Middle Eastern countries into the conflict after the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen declared a naval blockade last week on Saudi Arabia, threatening the alternative Red Sea route for its oil to Asia.
Attacks on ships by the Houthi militants prompted London’s marine insurance market to widen its “high risk” zone in the Red Sea to include more of the coast adjacent to Saudi Arabian ports.
Trump said he would hit Iran hard for firing missiles at US forces, but that Washington was also still seeking a peace deal to end a conflict that has roiled global energy and finance markets.
Oil prices soared more than 8 per cent on July 29, before easing 1 per cent on July 30 in volatile trade, with benchmark Brent crude trading just below the US$90 mark.
Iran controls crucial shipping waterway
Iran said on July 29 that it struck three tankers attempting to transit through the Strait of Hormuz along an unauthorised route.
However, a QatarEnergy-controlled liquefied natural gas tanker exited the strait overnight, the first such vessel recorded by ship-tracking data leaving the waterway since July 11. Iran’s semi-official news agency Fars said Tehran had given its permission for the tanker to pass.
Oman has presented Iran with a plan backed by Gulf states to manage the Strait of Hormuz, including collecting voluntary fees for using it, sources told Reuters on July 28.
Tehran rejected the Omani proposal on July 29, but Iran’s semi-official ILNA news agency quoted the country’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei as saying that talks with Oman over the Strait of Hormuz were continuing.
After the war exposed gaps in Iran’s ability to protect military sites and strategic infrastructure, Tehran was expected to receive within weeks a first shipment out of up to 400 Chinese-made shoulder-fired air-defence missile launchers, three sources familiar with the deal told Reuters.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment, while China’s Foreign Ministry denied the report. REUTERS
