Pacific Zircon, linked to Israeli billionaire, said to have been ‘hit by projectile’ but suffered only minor damage
The US and Israel have pointed the finger at Iran after an oil tanker associated with an Israeli billionaire was struck by a bomb-carrying drone off the coast of Oman.
The drone attack on the Liberian-flagged oil tanker Pacific Zircon happened on Tuesday night off the coast of Oman, a Middle East-based defence official told the Associated Press.
Continue reading...Incident off Oman involved vessel owned by Idan Ofer conglomerate
Oil prices have risen after a tanker owned by an Israeli billionaire was hit by a drone carrying a bomb off the coast of Oman.
The attack on Pacific Zircon, which is owned by Idan Ofer and operated by the Singapore-based Eastern Pacific Shipping, sent Brent crude prices up 65 cents to $94.5 (£79.23). The Liberian-flagged tanker had departed from Sohar, Oman, on Monday afternoon and was destined for Buenos Aires.
Continue reading...Report finds widespread instances of forced labour, with women denied access to passports and subjected to physical or sexual abuse
Oman is failing to protect migrant domestic workers who are victims of human trafficking, trapped in abusive households and subjected to physical and sexual violence with no access to justice or a safe route home, a report has found.
Do Bold, an organisation that works to assist and repatriate migrant workers trapped in the Gulf, interviewed 469 domestic workers from Sierra Leone working in Oman, for the report. It concluded that all but one of the women interviewed were victims of forced labour and human trafficking.
Continue reading...Pentecostalism is quietly thriving, with pastors saying churches are helping low-paid workers in crisis
Evangelical Christianity is quietly flourishing among migrant groups in the Gulf as churches provide low-paid workers facing horrific abuse with aid in times of crisis, according to pastors and parishioners across the region.
About 30 million migrant workers live in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – the muscle transforming oil-based economies into glittering 21st-century metropolises.
Continue reading...‘Insulting’ comments by spokespeople for ruling Bharatiya Janata party met with anger in Middle East
The Indian government has become embroiled in a diplomatic row with Gulf states after two ruling party spokespeople were accused of making Islamophobic and derogatory comments insulting the prophet Muhammad.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) suspended its national spokesperson, Nupur Sharma, and expelled its Delhi media head, Naveen Kumar Jindal, after their comments went viral in the Middle East, where they were met with a chorus of diplomatic anger.
Continue reading...Debt paid as Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh-Ashoori were released is blocked in Oman, Iran says
The historic £400m debt the UK paid to Iran at the time of the release of British-Iranian dual nationals Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori has still not reached Tehran, according to Iranian government sources.
A senior Iranian government source said the money was blocked in Oman and the problem was not with the UK government. One report said only £1m had been transferred to Tehran.
Continue reading...A cyclone that made landfall in Oman on Sunday has killed at least 13 people, and others are missing as the storm moved further inland and weakened. Omani state television broadcast images of flooded roadways and valleys as the storm churned deeper into the sultanate, its outer edges reaching the neighbouring United Arab Emirates
Continue reading...A spate of attacks on one of the world’s busiest shipping trade routes is part of an escalating tit-for-tat conflict playing out between Iran and Israel, says Martin Chulov, the Guardian’s Middle East correspondent
In the last week of July, an oil tanker managed by an Israeli company was making a routine journey from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates when it was hit by an explosive, believed to be a drone. Two men, a Romanian and a British national, were killed in the attack. The Israeli government immediately blamed Iran who has denied any part in it.
The Guardian’s Middle East correspondent, Martin Chulov, tells Nosheen Iqbal that it is the latest action in what is now a rapidly escalating ‘shadow war’ between Israel and Iran. With both countries under new leadership in recent weeks, there is an added layer of unpredictability to relations that have been tense for some time.
Continue reading...Armed group has left the Panama-registered Asphalt Princess, says British navy, after initial reports Iranian-backed forces had raided vessel
A group of armed men who boarded a tanker off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in the Gulf of Oman have left the targeted ship, the British navy has said without elaborating.
The notice on Wednesday came after the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) warned of a “potential hijack” under unclear circumstances underway the night before.
Continue reading...Boris Johnson has said Iran must face up to the consequences of its 'outrageous' attack on an oil tanker in the Arabian Sea that killed two crew, including a British national. The Liberian-flagged Mercer Street, which is linked to an Israeli tycoon, was hit off the coast of Oman late on 29 July in what is thought to have been a swarm attack involving multiple drones
Continue reading...Foreign secretary backs Israeli PM’s claims Iran was behind drone strike that killed Briton and Romanian
The UK has said it is “highly likely” that Iran carried out an “unlawful and callous attack” on a ship in the Middle East, which left a Briton dead.
The foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said the government believed the drone attack on the oil tanker off the coast of Oman was “deliberate, targeted, and a clear violation of international law by Iran”.
Continue reading...Israeli foreign minister contacts Dominic Raab and says ‘Iran is not just an Israeli problem’
Israel has blamed Iran for a suspected drone attack on a tanker in the Arabian Sea that killed two crew, including a British national, and has vowed a harsh response.
The Liberian flagged Mercer Street, which is linked to an Israeli tycoon, was hit off the coast of Oman late on Thursday in what is thought to have been a swarm attack involving multiple drones.
Continue reading...The Iranian navy’s largest warship caught fire and sank in unclear circumstances in the Gulf of Oman on Wednesday, semi-official news agencies have reported.
The blaze began at about 2.25am and firefighters tried to contain it, Fars said. The vessel sank off the Iranian port of Jask, near the strait of Hormuz. The crew are thought to have evacuated.
Continue reading...Kharg ‘training ship’ caught fire under unclear circumstances, semi-official Iranian news agencies report
The largest warship in the Iranian navy caught fire and later sank on Wednesday in the Gulf of Oman under unclear circumstances, semi-official news agencies have reported.
The Fars and Tasnim news agencies said efforts failed to save the support warship Kharg, named after the island that serves as the main oil terminal for Iran.
Continue reading...Women from Sierra Leone tricked into servitude find themselves sold on under Gulf’s kafala system
Isha knew she was in trouble when her passport was snatched from her hands. The 27-year-old from Sierra Leone had just arrived in the Omani capital, Muscat, believing she was to start a well-paid job at a restaurant. Instead, her recruitment agent bundled her into a car and drove her to a house where she was told she would be working as a live-in maid.
“My agent told me he could take my passport because he had bought me,” she says. “I was confused. How can you buy a human being?”
Continue reading...Deposed royal who fled to UK after 1964 revolution finally reunited with family in Oman
After more than half a century of living in Southsea, Portsmouth, with its unpredictable British weather, shingle beaches and Victorian pier, relocation to the Gulf state of Oman might take some adjustment.
But for Jamshid bin Abdullah al-Said the 91-year-old last sultan of Zanzibar, it was the next best thing to going home.
Continue reading...Gulf states prepare for demographic shift as migrant workforces return home, with prospects bleak for those who stay
During 14 years in Lebanon, Jevie Olido’s four children have grown up without her, her marriage has failed and her parents have grown old. Now, the income that kept her far from her home in the Philippines has also gone, rubbed out by the coronavirus crisis and an economic implosion that has forced thousands of desperate domestic workers like her to look for ways to leave.
In neighbouring Jordan, Samir Ali, an Indian garment worker, is also waiting to be paid, after only receiving his March salary when he and other foreign workers at their factory threatened to strike. The pandemic has crippled production across the country and caused clashes between labourers and employers. Eight of the 40 men had registered to go back to India once their contracts had finished. “We’ve decided this factory is really bad,” he said. “We’re poor people, so we have to find another way.”
Continue reading...War in Yemen and Saudia human rights repression will keep foreign secretary busy
Dramatic Houthi rebel advances and threats to end humanitarian aid in Yemen will lead Dominic Raab’s agenda when he makes his first visit to Saudi Arabia on Monday.
The British foreign secretary will also travel to Muscat later this week to meet the new Sultan of Oman, Haitham bin Tariq, to discuss his role in any mediation talks in Yemen.
Continue reading...Reports say Haitham bin Tariq al-Said will replace Sultan Qaboos bin Said, who had no children
Oman’s Sultan Qaboos bin Said, the Arab world’s longest-serving ruler and with a reputation for quiet diplomacy, has died at the age of 79.
His cousin, Haitham bin Tariq al-Said, will be sworn in as the new sultan, ending decades of speculation over who would succeed the popular ruler.
Continue reading...With Qaboos bin Said’s illness seemingly terminal, an elaborate set of rules is enacted
Elaborate discussions are under way in the Omani court about a potential successor to Sultan Qaboos bin Said, who has ruled the Arab nation for nearly 50 years but whose longterm illness has been worsening.
The succession process involves the opening of sealed letters in the court in Muscat identifying the sultan’s choice of successor, if the court cannot agree among itself.
Continue reading...