UAE Accuses Iran of Drone 'Piracy' After Tanker Attacks in Strait of Hormuz

The United Arab Emirates has accused Iran of launching drone attacks on two of its oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, calling the strikes "acts of piracy." The vessels, operated by Abu Dhabi’s state-owned oil company ADNOC, were attacked Thursday evening while transiting the critical waterway. The company said there were no injuries and that the situation was under control. The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center confirmed that two vessels suffered minor damage in a drone attack in the same area, though it did not identify them as the ADNOC ships. The UAE’s Foreign Ministry said the attacks were a "flagrant violation" of international principles on freedom of navigation. It blamed Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps for what it called "economic coercion or blackmail" and said the strikes posed a direct threat to regional stability and global energy security. Iran has not yet responded to the accusations. The incident highlights the ongoing dangers for commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, a passage that connects the Persian Gulf to open oceans and through which a significant share of the world’s oil travels. In a separate development, Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and Middle East negotiator, will travel to the region next week to push for progress on ending the conflict in Gaza. An official with the Board of Peace—the body Trump established to oversee the ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war—said Kushner, along with board representative Nickolay Mladenov and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, will arrive in Israel on Sunday. The group will then travel to Cairo, where meetings with a Palestinian technocratic group set to assume control of Gaza have been taking place for months. The trip comes after a U.S.-brokered deal recently announced by the Trump administration faced opposition from Israel.