Ship Struck Off Qatar as Iran Threatens to Strike US Mideast Sites

An unknown projectile struck a ship off the coast of Qatar early Sunday morning, a UK maritime agency reported, after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards threatened to target US vessels in the region.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said a bulk carrier had reported being hit 23 nautical miles northeast of Doha by an “unknown projectile”.

“There was a small fire that has been extinguished, there are no casualties. There is no reported environmental impact,” the agency said.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards threatened on Saturday (May 9) to target US sites in the Middle East if its tankers come under fire, Iranian media reported, as Washington was left waiting for Tehran’s response to its latest negotiating position.

“Any attack on Iranian tankers and commercial vessels will result in a heavy attack on one of the American centers in the region and enemy ships,” the Guards said, a day after US strikes on two Iranian tankers in the Gulf of Oman.

US President Donald Trump had said on Friday he was expecting Iran’s answer to Washington’s latest proposal for a peace deal “supposedly tonight”.

But if Tehran sent Pakistani mediators a response, there was no public sign of it, and Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reportedly questioned the reliability of US leadership.

“The recent escalation of tensions by American forces in the Persian Gulf and their numerous actions in violating the ceasefire have added to suspicions about the motivation and seriousness of the American side in the path of diplomacy,” he said in a call with his Turkish counterpart, according to Iran’s ISNA news agency.

On Friday, a US fighter jet fired on and disabled two Iranian-flagged tankers that Washington accused of challenging its blockade of Iran’s ports. An Iranian military official told local media the navy had responded with strikes.

In Lebanon, at least nine people were killed in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon on Saturday, coinciding with raids on southern Beirut, outside Hezbollah strongholds, according to Lebanese state media. (AFP)