Mourners attend a prayer for Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on February 28 in Israeli and U.S. airstrikes. [Photo Credit: Reuters]
The United States is revoking a general license authorizing the sale of Iranian oil, according to a U.S. official, who also warned of consequences over Iran’s actions in the Strait of Hormuz after three tankers were hit on Tuesday in the strategic waterway.
After a day in which huge crowds mourned Iran’s slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the holy city of Qom, oil prices rose more than 3% on news of the U.S. announcement and maritime security sources told Reuters that one of the ships attacked, an LNG carrier, could be at risk of explosion.
The incidents were only the latest to threaten the fragile ceasefire that the U.S. and Iran struck last month, pausing the conflict that started in February with U.S. and Israeli strikes across the Islamic Republic. In a potentially major blow to that agreement, Washington moved on Tuesday to withdraw a key concession that had allowed Iran to sell oil on international markets.
The U.S. official said negotiators continued to work in good faith toward a final agreement with Iran. But control of the strait has given Tehran immense leverage, effectively allowing it to force a stalemate with the world’s most powerful military. Analysts say Tehran uses attacks on ships to underscore that leverage as it negotiates a long-term peace deal with the U.S.
Under last month’s interim U.S.-Iran agreement, the U.S. Treasury issued a June 22 general license to allow the sale of crude oil and petrochemical and petroleum products of Iranian origin through August 21. In revoking that license on Tuesday, it gave Iran until July 17 to wind down any transactions.
Qatar blamed Iran for attacking the vessels, including the huge Qatari liquefied natural gas tanker, the Al Rekayyat, which reported being struck overnight by a drone that caused a fire in its engine room. The crew were safe and being evacuated.
A Saudi-flagged crude oil tanker, believed to be the supertanker Wedyan, was also damaged off Oman, maritime security sources said. The cause was not immediately clear.
Qatar’s foreign ministry said it had summoned Iran’s deputy ambassador and handed him a protest note following the attack on the tanker.
Iran’s foreign ministry said Qatar’s accusations were perplexing and that Tehran was diligently fulfilling its commitments but asserted that commercial vessels faced risks for using routes not coordinated with Iran.
A second U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said initial indications were that Iran had fired at three commercial vessels.
Iran’s clerical rulers aim to install a permanent system to collect fees in what would amount to a huge shift of the balance of power in a region where Washington has long acted as guarantor of security.
At home, the leadership has used the mourning for Khamenei that began last week to show its control after Khamenei was killed with his daughter, granddaughter, son-in-law and daughter-in-law on the war’s first day.
The caskets of the slain leader and family were driven through the streets of the seminary city of Qom on Tuesday, where many hundreds of thousands of people carried flags and banners comparing Khamenei to revered Shi’ite martyrs.
In chants they vowed to avenge Khamenei. Some bore placards and banners reading “KILL TRUMP”.
Later on Tuesday Iranian state media showed what it said was footage of an airplane carrying Khamenei’s coffin at the airport of the Shi’ite holy shrine city of Najaf in neighbouring Iraq.
