🇮🇷 Iran just fired a warning at the one strategy the Gulf was counting on to escape it, and the geography of the strike is the whole message
The two UAE shuttle tankers reportedly hit were struck in the southern lanes of the Strait of Hormuz, within Omani territorial waters.
These are the exact vessels the Emirates use to move oil around the chokepoint while sailing "dark" to avoid detection.
That target choice is deliberate.Iran is saying the bypass operation isn't safe either.
It reframes pipeline optimism entirely.
The Gulf's whole plan, the West-East line, the Fujairah terminals, the new Arabian Sea port, rests on the assumption that oil leaving overland or through these shuttle operations escapes Iranian reach.
A cruise missile just tested that assumption and it failed.
The reported Iranian strike on U.S. maritime detection radars in Oman compounds it, blinding the surveillance that feeds the region's maritime safety.
And the Houthi drones targeting Abha airport in Saudi Arabia hint at the next expansion: if Iran and its allies can threaten the Hormuz shuttle operations, the surveillance grid, and eventually Bab el-Mandeb, there is no clean way out.
🇴🇲🇮🇷 3 oil tankers were attacked near the Strait of Hormuz today
Oman's Maritime Security Centre says all three were hit in Omani waters near the Strait of Hormuz.
Most were struck off Musandam, Oman's northern tip that juts into the Strait.
The UAE says 2 of them, Mombasa and Al Bahyah, were hit by Iranian cruise missiles, and Iran's IRGC, its Revolutionary Guard, claimed them. The third is still unconfirmed.
Stolt Magnesium (Liberia): caught fire off South Sharqiyah, all 23 crew off safely
Mombasa (Liberia): lost engine power off Musandam, 21 evacuated, 6 hurt
Al Bahyah (UAE): hit off Musandam too, 18 got off, 3 still missing
3 tankers in one day, in the world's busiest oil chokepoint, and Iran isn't hiding it.