Tankers targeted in sabotage plot against major Persian Gulf oil hub

BEIRUT — Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said Monday that two Saudi oil tankers had been sabotaged and sustained “significant damage” off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, raising new fears of escalating tensions in the region involving Iran, the two Gulf countries’ avowed enemy.

A Norwegian company reported that one of its tankers, the Andrea Victory, was also damaged in the same area Sunday. Images posted online appeared to show the ship with a ragged gash in its stern at the waterline. The United Arab Emirates said a total of four vessels had been sabotaged off the port city of Fujairah near the Strait of Hormuz, the gateway to the Persian Gulf.

Neither Saudi Arabia nor the United Arab Emirates assigned blame, made public any evidence of damage to their ships or described the nature of the sabotage. In a statement, the Norwegian company, the Thome Group, said the crew of its ship had reported that “the vessel sustained hull damage after being struck by an unknown object.” Nobody was hurt, the company added, and the ship was not in danger of sinking.

Though the situation remains murky, even the hint of armed conflict sends shudders through a region already on edge from threats and counterthreats, and through a global economy heavily dependent on the free flow of oil from the gulf. Iran has threatened in recent years to block traffic through the strait, in response to Western sanctions and tensions with Saudi Arabia, but has not followed through.

“We are very worried about the risk of a conflict happening by accident, with an escalation that is unintended really on either side,” British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said in Brussels on Monday. “I think what we need is a period of calm to make sure that everyone understands what the other side is thinking.”

The claim of sabotage comes as...