A video posted online on 31 May has gone viral on Arabic twitter accounts. The video that allegedly shows how Iranians sabotaged ships off the coast of the United Arab Emirates features two men dangerously playing on the rudder of Greek crude oil tanker Ithaki Warrior.
Those that featured the video, mainly supporters of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, shared it as ‘proof’ of how Iran was able to sabotage four oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman. It was linked to the oil tankers that were sabotaged on 12 May – two from Saudi Arabia, one from the UAE and another from Norway.
US National Security Adviser John Bolton claimed that naval mines “almost certainly” from Iran were responsible for the damage in a statement he made on 29 May. This was refuted by Iran’s foreign minister on Wednesday who tweeted that “Mossad is fabricating intelligence about Iran’s involvement in sabotage in Fujairah.” Fujairah is the UAE port near where the ships were anchored.”
The video, however, is unrelated to the incidents with the men playing on the Greek tanker at some other location, unrelated to the Gulf. The Ithaki Warrior is currently off the coast of Greece and was travelling around Italy in May according to ship tracker Marine Traffic.
https://twitter.com/Binmaha/status/1134417418296725504
