TEHRAN – Iran rejects claims made by the Saudi Arabia government over thedamaged Iranian Oil tanker that was reportedly hit by two missiles offcoast Saudi Arabia, Iranian media had reported.
Iranian maritime authorities deny Saudi Arabia’s claims that it wanted toprovide help to a damaged Iranian oil tanker after it was attacked off thecoast of Jeddah in the Red Sea, saying Saudi coast guard ignored the ship’srepeated requests for help.
A statement from the Port and Maritime Organization of Iran (PMO) releasedon Sunday said that Saudi authorities had refused to provide help to theIranian tanker MT Sabiti after it came under attacks at 01.30 and 01.50 GMTFriday by two missiles fired from an unknown location.
The statementlinkthe coast guard in Jeddah refused to respond to 16 distress calls sent bythe ship over four communication channels between 05.11 and 07.20 GMT onFriday, adding that Saudi authorities responded to a communication fromIran’s port of Bandar Abbas at 05.55 GMT by saying that they had notreceived any distress call from MT Sabiti and that Iranians wereexaggerating the case.
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The statement said that Saudi authorities also ignored another distresscall sent by the ship at 07.30 GMT, prompting port officials in Iran tosend an email to Jeddah, as well as to the coast guards in Sudan and Egypt,at 08.20 GMT, demanding help.
However, it said that two helicopters scrambled from a warship sailingnearby at 10.00 GMT had returned to the ship after 10 minutes withoutproviding any help to the Iranian ship.
