Iran has warned the US to stop playing a blame game through "suspicious" attacks on oil tankers in the Middle East, describing the American behavior as "worrying".

The stern warning by Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi on Friday came after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo offhandedly blamed Tehran for attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman.

"The suspicious nature of incidents for oil tankers is not a joke. It is not only not funny, but it is also worrying and alarming," Mousavi said in a statement.

The attacks on Thursday morning sent shock waves through the world which was awaiting the news of a meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei in Tehran.

Pompeo said immediately, “It is the assessment of the United States government that the Islamic Republic of Iran is responsible for the attacks that occurred in the Gulf of Oman today.”

"It seems that for Mr Pompeo and other American statesmen, accusing Iran in the suspicious and unfortunate incident for tankers is the most convenient and simplistic job," Mousavi said.

"While Japan's prime minister is meeting with the number one figure of the Islamic Republic of Iran to reduce tensions, which clandestine hands seek to undermine these efforts in the region and who benefit from it?" he added.

The spokesman reminded that Iran was the first country to come to help the ships in distress and save their crew as quick as possible.

"The responsibility for ensuring the security of the Strait of Hormuz lies with the Islamic Republic of Iran, and we have shown that we have been able to help the sailors of the crashed ships and rescue them as quickly as possible."

Earlier on Friday, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif rebuffed Pompeo's allegations, saying they were part of the “sabotage diplomacy” pushed by the "B-Team".

The B-Team is a reference to hawkish US national security adviser John Bolton, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

In a follow-up Twitter post, Zarif said, “I warned of exactly this scenario a few months ago, not because I'm clairvoyant, but because I recognize where the #B_Team is coming from.”

The UN Security Council met behind closed doors on Thursday and discussed the attacks at the request of the United States.

Washington's assessment, however, was not shared by other council members, who noted that there was no clear evidence linking Tehran to the attacks, diplomats said.

The Iranian mission to the UN, meanwhile, rejected the "unfounded" US accusations.

“Neither fabrications and disinformation campaigns nor shamelessly blaming others can change the realities. The US and its regional allies must stop warmongering and put an end to mischievous plots as well as false flag operations in the region.” </s> FILE – In this Jan. 22, 2014 file photo, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, left, and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, attend a session of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Abe’s trip to Tehran on Wednesday, June 12, 2019, represents the highest-level effort yet to de-escalate tensions between the U.S. and Iran. The visit comes as Iran appears poised to break the 2015 nuclear deal it struck with world powers that America earlier abandoned. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s trip to Tehran represents the highest-level effort yet to de-escalate tensions between the U.S. and Iran as the country appears poised to break the 2015 nuclear deal it struck with world powers that America earlier abandoned.

But while Abe’s trip to Iran marks the first visit of a sitting Japanese premier in the 40 years since the Islamic Revolution, it remains unclear if he’ll end up going home with any success.

Iran is threatening to resume enriching uranium closer to weapons-grade level on July 7 if European allies fail to offer it new terms. While President Donald Trump says he wants to talk to Tehran, the U.S. has piled on sanctions that have seen Iran’s rial currency plummet along with its crucial oil exports.

The U.S. also has sent an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers to the region, along with hundreds more troops to back up the tens of thousands already deployed across the Middle East. The U.S. blames Iran for a mysterious attack on oil tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, while Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen continue to launch coordinated drone attacks on Saudi Arabia.

The stakes, analysts say, couldn’t be higher.

“Just going to Iran doesn’t resolve any problem,” said Kazuo Takahashi, an Open University of Japan professor of international politics and expert on the Middle East. “He would have to help open a path of dialogue between the U.S. and Iran, and that could be a major risk.”

Iran’s nuclear deal, agreed to at the time by China, Russia, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the U.S., saw Tehran agree to limit its enrichment of uranium exchange for the lifting of crippling sanctions. Western powers feared Iran’s atomic program could allow it to build nuclear weapons, although Iran long has insisted its program was for peaceful purposes.

In withdrawing from the deal last year, Trump pointed to the accord not limiting Iran’s ballistic missile program and not addressing what American officials describe as Tehran’s malign influence across the wider Mideast. Those who struck the deal at the time described it as a building block toward further negotiations with Iran, whose Islamic government has had a tense relationship with America since the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and subsequent hostage crisis.

Trump spoke Tuesday with Abe, said Yoshihide Suga, Japan’s chief Cabinet secretary. Suga declined to give any details about what they discussed. Abe also in recent days spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, all of whom are fierce critics of Iran.

“Taking into account the current status of rising tension in the Middle East, we hope to ease tensions through leader-level talks with Iran, a regional powerhouse,” Suga said.

Middle East peace is a must for Japan, which gets most of the oil fueling its economy from there. Japan had once purchased Iranian oil, but it has now stopped because of American sanctions. Recent threats from Iran to close off the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth through which a third of all oil traded by sea passes, has raised concerns.

Abe is scheduled to see Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate within Iran’s Shiite theocracy, as well as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Already though, Iran says it quadrupled its production of low-enriched uranium. Yukiya Amano, the director-general of the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency that monitors Iran’s nuclear deal, acknowledged Monday that Tehran has increased its production. However, Amano said he hadn’t spoken recently with Abe.

Meanwhile, U.S. sanctions have cut off opportunities for Iran to trade its excess uranium and heavy water abroad, putting Tehran on course to violate terms of the nuclear deal regardless.

Hard-liners within Iran already have dismissed Abe’s trip.

“Just like the nuclear deal . helped improved the country’s economy, visits by people such as the Japanese prime minister will improve the livelihood of the people,” the hard-line Kayhan newspaper sarcastically offered in an editorial Tuesday.

It remains unlikely Iran will want to engage in direct talks with the U.S. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, an American-educated diplomat key in negotiating the nuclear deal, openly threatened the U.S. during a news conference Monday with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.

“Mr. Trump himself has announced that the U.S. has launched an economic war against Iran,” Zarif said. “The only solution for reducing tensions in this region is stopping that economic war.”

Zarif also warned: “Whoever starts a war with us will not be the one who finishes it.”

However, Iran on Tuesday did release U.S. permanent resident Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese-born internet advocate imprisoned for years in Tehran on internationally criticized spying charges. Zakka had done contract work for the State Department.

And overall, Iran risks little in inviting Abe to the country, said Henry Rome, an analyst with the Eurasia Group.

“Khamenei and Rouhani get to show the beleaguered population that despite extreme economic pressure, top world leaders are still willing to visit Iran,” Rome wrote Monday. “And Tehran can probe for opportunities to expand its trade relationship with Tokyo, although options are quite limited.”

Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo. Associated Press writer Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed. </s> DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's trip to Tehran represents the highest-level effort yet to de-escalate tensions between the U.S. and Iran as the country appears poised to break the 2015 nuclear deal it struck with world powers that America earlier abandoned.

But while Abe's trip to Iran marks the first visit of a sitting Japanese premier in the 40 years since the Islamic Revolution, it remains unclear if he'll end up going home with any success.

Iran is threatening to resume enriching uranium closer to weapons-grade level on July 7 if European allies fail to offer it new terms. While President Donald Trump says he wants to talk to Tehran, the U.S. has piled on sanctions that have seen Iran's rial currency plummet along with its crucial oil exports.

The U.S. also has sent an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers to the region, along with hundreds more troops to back up the tens of thousands already deployed across the Middle East. The U.S. blames Iran for a mysterious attack on oil tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, while Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen continue to launch coordinated drone attacks on Saudi Arabia.

The stakes, analysts say, couldn't be higher.

"Just going to Iran doesn't resolve any problem," said Kazuo Takahashi, an Open University of Japan professor of international politics and expert on the Middle East. "He would have to help open a path of dialogue between the U.S. and Iran, and that could be a major risk."

Iran's nuclear deal, agreed to at the time by China, Russia, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the U.S., saw Tehran agree to limit its enrichment of uranium exchange for the lifting of crippling sanctions. Western powers feared Iran's atomic program could allow it to build nuclear weapons, although Iran long has insisted its program was for peaceful purposes.

In withdrawing from the deal last year, Trump pointed to the accord not limiting Iran's ballistic missile program and not addressing what American officials describe as Tehran's malign influence across the wider Mideast. Those who struck the deal at the time described it as a building block toward further negotiations with Iran, whose Islamic government has had a tense relationship with America since the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and subsequent hostage crisis.

Trump spoke Tuesday with Abe, said Yoshihide Suga, Japan's chief Cabinet secretary. Suga declined to give any details about what they discussed. Abe also in recent days spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, all of whom are fierce critics of Iran.

"Taking into account the current status of rising tension in the Middle East, we hope to ease tensions through leader-level talks with Iran, a regional powerhouse," Suga said.

Middle East peace is a must for Japan, which gets most of the oil fueling its economy from there. Japan had once purchased Iranian oil, but it has now stopped because of American sanctions. Recent threats from Iran to close off the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth through which a third of all oil traded by sea passes, has raised concerns.

Abe is scheduled to see Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate within Iran's Shiite theocracy, as well as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Already though, Iran says it quadrupled its production of low-enriched uranium. Yukiya Amano, the director-general of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency that monitors Iran's nuclear deal, acknowledged Monday that Tehran has increased its production. However, Amano said he hadn't spoken recently with Abe.

Meanwhile, U.S. sanctions have cut off opportunities for Iran to trade its excess uranium and heavy water abroad, putting Tehran on course to violate terms of the nuclear deal regardless.

Hard-liners within Iran already have dismissed Abe's trip.

"Just like the nuclear deal . helped improved the country's economy, visits by people such as the Japanese prime minister will improve the livelihood of the people," the hard-line Kayhan newspaper sarcastically offered in an editorial Tuesday.

It remains unlikely Iran will want to engage in direct talks with the U.S. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, an American-educated diplomat key in negotiating the nuclear deal, openly threatened the U.S. during a news conference Monday with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.

"Mr. Trump himself has announced that the U.S. has launched an economic war against Iran," Zarif said. "The only solution for reducing tensions in this region is stopping that economic war."

Zarif also warned: "Whoever starts a war with us will not be the one who finishes it."

However, Iran on Tuesday did release U.S. permanent resident Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese-born internet advocate imprisoned for years in Tehran on internationally criticized spying charges. Zakka had done contract work for the State Department.

And overall, Iran risks little in inviting Abe to the country, said Henry Rome, an analyst with the Eurasia Group.

"Khamenei and Rouhani get to show the beleaguered population that despite extreme economic pressure, top world leaders are still willing to visit Iran," Rome wrote Monday. "And Tehran can probe for opportunities to expand its trade relationship with Tokyo, although options are quite limited." </s> Two oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most sensitive oil transportation choke point, came under attack Thursday.

U.S. officials were quick to blame Iran, while Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif denied responsibility and described the attacks as “suspicious.”

Jamal Abdi, president of the National Iranian American Council, said in a statement: “With [national security adviser] John Bolton seeking to maneuver the U.S. into a war with Iran, the sabotage of more oil tankers underscores the increasingly dangerous situation in the Middle East as the Trump administration pursues its maximum pressure approach toward Iran."

No state has been deemed responsible for attacks on tankers that occurred in May, Abdi said.

"There is a plausible motive to attribute to Iran, but also to other actors in the region and beyond who want to maneuver the U.S. into a war.”

The sabotage occurred amid Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s state visit to Iran, where he is thought to have communicated a message from Trump to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Abdi said. This "underscores that the likely motive of the attackers is to prevent any easing of tensions and block off exit ramps to war," he said.

One of the ships attacked Thursday is Japanese, according to The Wall Street Journal.

“We may know more about these attacks in the weeks ahead, but we urge all actors — in particular the Trump administration and Iran — to exercise restraint," Abdi said.

WTI crude prices were up 2.19% at the time of publication Thursday, while Brent crude was up 2.08%, according to oilprice.com.

Oil Prices Moving Following Reports Of Tanker Attacks Near Iran </s> DUBAI (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe warned of unintended clashes in the crisis-hit Middle East after meeting the Iranian president in Tehran on Wednesday, amid a brewing confrontation between Iran and the United States.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani shakes hands with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, during a welcome ceremony in Tehran, Iran, June 12, 2019. Official Iranian President website/Handout via REUTERS

As a U.S. ally that also has good diplomatic relations with Iran, Japan could be in a unique position to mediate between the Islamic Republic and the United States.

“Armed conflict needs to be prevented at all costs. Peace and stability in the Middle East is indispensable not only for this region but for global prosperity. No one is hoping for war,” the Japanese leader said.

“We would like to play the maximum role we can for easing tension. That is what brought me to Iran,” said Abe, whose two-day visit is the first by a Japanese leader to Iran since its 1979 Islamic Revolution.

While Abe did not mention Japan’s currently suspended purchases of Iranian oil, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that Japan wants to keep buying Iranian oil.

“In our meeting, Mr. Abe said that Japan was interested in continuing buying Iran’s oil,” Rouhani told a joint news conference with Abe, broadcast live on state TV.

Earlier, two Iranian officials told Reuters that Tehran would ask Tokyo to mediate between it and Washington to ease oil sanctions on Iran.

“America should either lift the unjust oil sanctions or extend the waivers or suspend them,” one senior official said.

To slash Iran’s oil exports, Washington has revoked waivers since May that had allowed some countries, including Japan, to continue buying Iranian crude and has effectively ordered countries to stop purchasing Iranian oil or face sanctions of their own.

Despite pushing for imports to continue, Japan has stopped importing oil from Iran for now to avoid U.S. sanctions.

On a visit to Japan last month, U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed Abe’s help in dealing with Iran, highlighting what he called the “very good relationship” between Tokyo and Tehran.

Strains between Washington and Tehran have sharply increased in recent weeks, a year after the United States abandoned a 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers to curb Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.

“Iran will remain committed to the deal, which is important for the security of the region and the world. Tehran and Tokyo both oppose nuclear weapons,” said Rouhani.

TRUMP CRANKS UP PRESSURE ON IRAN

Washington, calling the nuclear deal flawed and seeking to push Iran into new negotiations, intensified sanctions from the start of May, ordering all countries and firms to halt imports of Iranian oil or be banished from the global financial system.

It has also dispatched extra armed forces to the region to counter what it describes as Iranian threats.

Iran has warned against any military aggression.

“Iran will never initiate a war but will give a crushing response to any aggression,” Rouhani said.

“The source of tensions is America’s staged economic war against Iran. As soon as this war ends, we shall see a very positive development in the region and in the world.”

Abe has talked to U.S. regional allies like Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who have supported Trump’s Iran policy.

Iran said in May that after 60 days it would resume its enrichment of uranium beyond the low fissile purity - suitable for civilian nuclear power generation - allowed under the deal, unless other powers stuck to their commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal.

European parties the deal have promised to help Iran find other ways to trade, although with no success so far.

Japan wants to do as much as possible towards peace and stability in the Middle East,” Abe said in Tokyo ahead of his departure, according to Iranian TV.

Slideshow (10 Images)

But just hours before Abe’s visit to Iran, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels carried out a missile attack on a civilian airport in southern Saudi Arabia which wounded 26 people.

The Western-backed, Sunni Muslim alliance that has been battling the Houthis in Yemen said the attack was proof of Tehran’s support for what it called cross-border terrorism.

Abe will also meet the Islamic Republic’s top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. </s> The United States has blamed Iran for an attack on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman, releasing video footage that it claims shows an Iranian patrol boat removing an unexploded mine from one of the vessels’ hulls.

The Kokura Courageous and Front Altair tankers were attacked in international waters Thursday, prompting the evacuation of both vessels and raising fears of further confrontation in one of the world’s most strategic shipping lanes at a time of high tensions between the US and Iran.

The explosions, which sparked a fire on at least one of the two ships, are still under investigation. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Iran for the incident, citing intelligence assessments, the weapons used, the level of expertise required and the similarity to other recent attacks.

On Thursday night, US Central Command released a video which it said shows Iranian sailors removing a mine from the Kokura Courageous’ hull.

In the video, a smaller boat is shown coming up to the side of the Japanese-owned tanker. An individual stands up on the bow of the boat and can be seen removing an object from the tanker’s hull. The US says that object is likely an unexploded mine.

“Iran did do it, and you know they did it because you saw the boat,” President Donald Trump said during a phone interview on Fox and Friends Friday morning, referring to the video.

A senior diplomatic source of a US ally told CNN Friday, “It is a virtual certainty Iran was behind this latest attack. The video now nails it.”

The source added that the goal of the response from the US government thus far is all about publicly exposing Iranian actions and intensifying maximum pressure.

After the United States withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal, adopted a policy of maximum economic pressure and sent a carrier group to the region, the source said this “Iranian retaliation is designed to show they can disrupt, and push oil prices up.”

The Trump administration predicted that the pressure from the United States would bring Iran to the negotiating table, but European leaders disagreed, believing it would empower the hardliners, the source continued.

Iran has denied any involvement in the incident, with its foreign minister suggesting that the US was quick to make allegations “without a shred of evidence.”

On Friday, the president of the Japanese shipping company that owns the Kokuka Courageous held a press conference in Tokyo, in which he denied that a mine had been used in the tanker attack.

The President of Kokuka Sangyo Marine, Yutaka Katada, said he believed there was “no possibility of mine attack” owing to the attack being “well above the naval line.”

Katada said he had not seen the images released by the US military, but referenced the account of a crew member who witnessed the second blast and saw a “flying object.”

The International Association of Independent Tanker Owners (Intertanko) said the vessels were hit “at or below the waterline, in close proximity to the engine room,” and added that the attacks “appeared to be well-planned and coordinated.”

Another US official told CNN that multiple Iranian small boats have entered the area where the USS Bainbridge continues to be on the scene, prompting US Central Command to issue a statement saying, “No interference with USS Bainbridge, or its mission, will be tolerated.”

The attack could provide more fodder for Iran hawks within the US administration, whose recent Iran saber-rattling has frustrated President Donald Trump. One of them, national security adviser John Bolton, announced last month that the Pentagon was deploying the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force to the Middle East in response to a “number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings” from Iran.

The two tankers — one carrying oil and the other transporting chemicals — were attacked near the strategically important Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route that has been the focal point of regional tensions for decades. Roughly 30% of the world’s sea-borne crude oil passes through the strategic choke point, making it a flashpoint for political and economic friction.

Jonathan Cohen, acting US ambassador to the United Nations, said Thursday that he echoed Pompeo’s comments in a private meeting of the UN Security Council, describing the attack as “another example of Iran’s destabilizing activities in the region.”

The Iranian mission to the UN rejected the US’ claim.

Alireza Miryousefi, a spokesman for the Iranian mission, tweeted a statement saying Iran “categorically rejects the US unfounded claim” that Iran is behind the attacks and “condemns it in the strongest possible terms.”

He added that Iran “expresses concern” over the “suspicious incidents.” And he called it “ironic” that the US, which withdrew from the nuclear deal with Iran, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, is now calling Iran to come back for negotiations and diplomacy.

Following the attack, Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said “suspicious doesn’t begin to describe” this latest incident, noting that one of the tankers is Japanese owned and the attack took place as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was visiting Iran in an effort to calm tensions between Washington and Tehran.

“Reported attacks on Japan-related tankers occurred while PM was meeting with Ayatollah [Ali Khamenei] for extensive and friendly talks. Suspicious doesn’t begin to describe what likely transpired this morning,” Zarif tweeted Thursday.

After Khamenei met with Abe, who was in Tehran on a visit widely viewed as an attempt to moderate US-Iran tensions, Iran’s Supreme Leader tweeted that he does not “consider Trump as a person deserving to exchange messages with; I have no response for him & will not answer him.”

Trump appeared to weigh in on Twitter, saying: “While I very much appreciate P.M. Abe going to Iran to meet with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, I personally feel that it is too soon to even think about making a deal. They are not ready, and neither are we!”

Thursday’s incident follows attacks on four oil tankers in the United Arab Emirates’ port of Fujairah in May. The US and Saudi Arabia suspect Iran was behind those attacks — though no evidence of its involvement has been presented. Tehran denied any involvement, and precisely who carried it out is still under investigation.

Initial findings from an international investigation of the attack last month concluded that a “state actor” was the most likely culprit.

The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Norway told the UN Security Council last week that there are “strong indications that last month’s attacks were part of a sophisticated and coordinated operation carried out with significant operational capacity.”

On Friday, a UK intelligence source told CNN that Britain had “no doubts” over the validity of the video released by the US Central Command. When asked about the remarks from Pompeo blaming Iran for the attack, Maja Kocijančič, a spokeswoman for the European Union, said Friday that the EU was still “gathering more information.” </s> Japan "resolutely denounces" attacks on two oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, regardless of who is responsible for them, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Friday after speaking with U.S. President Donald Trump by phone.

Abe, who returned to Tokyo in the morning from a two-day visit to Tehran, did not name any country suspected of being behind the attacks, while the United States has already pointed fingers at Iran.

Amid escalating tensions in the Middle East, Abe instead said Japan will work closely with the United States and the international community for peace and stability in the region.

"I believe that all parties concerned should exercise restraint to prevent from causing unforeseen situations and refrain from any action that could escalate tensions," Abe also told reporters at his office in Tokyo shortly after the phone conversation that lasted about 30 minutes.

While Thursday's attacks on the tankers, including one operated by a Japanese company, have raised fears of a new confrontation between Washington and Tehran, Abe said, "U.S. President Trump expressed appreciation for my visit to Iran and efforts (toward easing tensions)."

According to the White House, Trump thanked Abe for his effort to facilitate communication with Iran. They discussed Abe's recent trip to Tehran and the circumstances surrounding the attacks on the two tankers.

The two leaders also touched on negotiations for a Japan-U.S. trade agreement and Trump's visit to Japan for a Group of 20 summit slated for June 28 and 29 in Osaka, it said in a brief statement.

The United States has released footage purportedly showing an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps patrol boat removing an unexploded mine from the Japanese-operated Kokuka Courageous in the Gulf of Oman, one of the world's most important sea lanes. But Iran has denied the allegations.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday that Washington's judgment is based on "intelligence, the weapons used, the level of expertise needed to execute the operation, recent similar Iranian attacks on shipping, and the fact that no proxy group operating in the area has the resources and proficiency to act with such a high degree of sophistication."

During his visit to Iran, Abe sought to broker dialogue between the two foes, tapping into Tokyo's traditionally friendly ties with Tehran.

Abe conveyed Trump's message that Washington is ready to open talks with Tehran, but Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei on Thursday flatly rejected the proposal.

"I do not consider Trump as a person worth exchanging any message with and I have no answer for him, nor will I respond to him in the future," Khamenei, who ultimately decides on Iran's policy direction, told Abe, who became the first sitting Japanese prime minister to visit the country in 41 years.

Khamenei also said in a statement, released after meeting with Abe, that Iran believes "problems will not be solved by negotiating with the United States, and no free nation would ever accept negotiations under pressure." </s> BREAKING: U.S. Central Command released a video it says shows Iran removing a mine from targeted oil tanker.

Capt. Bill Urban, the spokesman for U.S. Central Command, issued a timeline late Thursday that suggested U.S. military assets observed Iranian vessels returning to the Courageous to retrieve the unexploded mine.

“At 4:10 p.m. local time an IRGC Gashti Class patrol boat approached the M/T Kokuka Courageous and was observed and recorded removing the unexploded limpet mine” from the Courageous,” Urban said.

The perilous contest between the United States and Iran for influence in the Middle East escalated dramatically on Thursday as two tankers were targeted in suspected attacks near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for global oil shipments.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Iran for the “blatant assault” on the vessels and said the United States would defend itself and its allies against Iranian aggression in the region. But he provided no evidence that the explosions had been the work of Iranian forces.

The blasts appeared to be a coordinated attack, damaging the hull of a Japanese-owned tanker and striking a Norwegian-owned vessel, which caught fire and was left adrift in the Gulf of Oman.

The incidents were similar to suspected acts of sabotage carried out against tankers near the United Arab Emirates port of Fujairah last month and looked to be the latest salvo in the mounting confrontation between the United States and Iran. As the Trump administration has tightened economic sanctions on Iran after withdrawing last year from the historic nuclear deal, Iran and its allies have responded with calibrated attacks in the Persian Gulf area, Iraq and Saudi Arabia aimed at underscoring the potential cost to U.S. interests, including the international oil trade, experts say.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif described the incidents Thursday as “suspicious,” and Iran’s naval forces said they were investigating the “accident” in the Gulf of Oman. At the United Nations, the Iranian mission denied any involvement and called the U.S. claim “inflammatory” and “Iranophobic.”

The crews of both vessels were forced to abandon ship. A U.S. defense official said the USS Bainbridge, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer that was in the area, took on board 21 crew members from the Japanese vessel, the Kokuka Courageous.

The suspected attack on the Japanese ship appeared timed to undermine diplomatic efforts by Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, who was wrapping up a high-stakes visit to Tehran. He met there with Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and was seeking to help mediate potential talks between U.S. and Iranian officials. Abe had called his talks in Tehran “a major step forward toward securing peace and stability in this region,” the Kyodo news agency reported.

The second vessel, owned by Norway’s Frontline, was “suspected of being hit by a torpedo,” an official with Taiwan’s state oil refiner, CPC Corp., which chartered the vessel, told the Reuters news agency.

The tanker, called the Front Altair, was carrying naphtha, a flammable petrochemical product that was loaded at a port in the UAE and was destined for East Asia, news agencies reported. The ship’s 23 crew members — 11 Russians, 11 Filipinos and one Georgian — were rescued by a nearby vessel and transferred to an Iranian navy ship, then taken to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas.

Speaking to reporters, Pompeo said that the U.S. assessment of Iranian involvement is based on intelligence, the type of weapons used and the level of expertise needed, and that no Iranian-backed militia in the region has the resources or proficiency to pull off such a sophisticated operation.

He said the impetus behind the attacks was the administration’s “maximum pressure campaign” of sanctions that U.S. officials say are designed to get Iran to negotiate over its nuclear program and its support of militias in various neighboring countries.

“Our policy remains an economic and diplomatic effort to bring Iran back to the negotiating table at the right time and encourage a comprehensive deal that addresses the broad range of threats,” Pompeo said. “Iran should meet diplomacy with diplomacy, not with terror, bloodshed and extortion.”

In New York, the U.S. representative to the United Nations blamed Tehran for the attacks during a meeting of the Security Council, drawing a sharp response from the Iranian mission.

“Iran categorically rejects the U.S. unfounded claim,” the mission said in a statement.

“The U.S. economic war and terrorism against the Iranian people as well as its massive military presence in the region have been and continue to be the main sources of insecurity and instability in the wider Persian Gulf region and the most significant threat to its peace and security,” the statement continued.

“Neither fabrications and disinformation campaigns nor shamelessly blaming others can change the realities. The U.S. and its regional allies must stop warmongering and put an end to mischievous plots as well as false flag operations in the region.”

Shortly after Pompeo spoke in Washington, senior U.S. officials showed photographs to reporters of the damaged tanker Courageous with what the Navy identified as a suspected magnetic mine attached to its hull. The unexploded weapon was probably applied by hand from an Iranian fast boat, one official said, and is thought to be the same kind of weapon used to blow a hole elsewhere in the same tanker and to do more-

serious damage to the other ship, the Front Altair, two officials said.

The officials, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity because many elements of the investigation remain secret, said the type and timing of the attack bear Iranian hallmarks, but U.S. officials cannot yet say with certainty where the mines were manufactured or exactly how they were laid.

“There’s not too many ways in which this can be done,” one official said. “Very few that don’t involve an individual physically placing it on the ship.”

U.S. officials said several nations are consulting about how to respond. One option may be to provide military escorts for commercial tankers moving through the Strait of Hormuz, one official said, although no decision has been made.

“As the threat evolves, it’s incumbent on us to reevaluate our presence,” said one senior U.S. official.

The U.S. military has dispatched a P-8 Poseidon, an anti-ship, anti-submarine and surveillance aircraft, to the area in response to the incident, a defense official said.

Senior U.S. officials have frequently been in touch about the incident since Thursday morning, the official added. U.S. Central Command is sending additional troops and weaponry to the Middle East.

[The oil route that could become central to mounting tensions between Iran and the U.S.]

The Gulf of Oman links the Arabian Sea with the Strait of Hormuz, the gateway to the Persian Gulf. The gulf has been a flash point for tensions between Iran and the United States and its Arab gulf allies.

“The tension in the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf is now as high as it gets without being an actual armed conflict,” said Jakob P. Larsen, head of maritime security at the Baltic and International Maritime Council, the world’s largest international shipping association. “The increase in attacks and the escalated threat to seafarers is an urgent concern to the industry.”

U.S. officials say the administration’s pressure campaign is aimed at isolating Tehran, curbing its support for regional proxies, restricting its ballistic missile program, and ultimately bringing Tehran back to the negotiating table. But some experts say the recent tensions have underscored the limits of that policy.

In a climate of hostility, the tanker incidents could bring the parties closer to the brink of violent confrontation.

“This is a way station to a wider conflict breaking out between Iran and the United States,” said Ali Vaez, senior Iran analyst and Iran project director for the International Crisis Group. “If Iran was behind it, it is very clear the maximum pressure policy of the Trump administration is rendering Iran more aggressive, not less.”

The attacks could also reflect a widening split between pro-

diplomacy officials in Iran and hard-liners opposed to further negotiations, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC. The paramilitary organization, which boasts land, air and sea forces, answers only to Khamenei and is responsible for Iran’s external military operations.

Iran’s security services, including the IRGC, “have a decades-long history of conducting attacks and other operations aimed precisely at undermining the diplomatic objectives of a country’s elected representatives,” the political risk firm Eurasia Group said in a briefing note Thursday.

“The attacks could have been designed to put an exclamation point on Iran’s warnings to Abe about the risks of instability in the region,” the note said. About 80 percent of Japan’s oil imports come from the Middle East and pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

The attacks occurred 24 nautical miles from the nearest IRGC naval base, one U.S. official said. IRGC ships are frequently present in that area but had not until recently begun to harass or impede shipping, the official said.

“It’s clear that there is a pattern of Iranian naval activity in and around commercial shipping lanes that is inconsistent with their prior behavior,” the official said.

The attacks are part of Iran’s response to tightening U.S. sanctions, one official said. He described the Iranian view this way: “If we can’t ship oil, no one can.”

Gearan and Morello reported from Washington. Simon Denyer and Akiko Kashiwagi in Tokyo contributed to this report.

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news </s> US President Donald Trump discussed with Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe Friday recent attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman, Anadolu Agency reports.

The telephone call follows the conclusion of Abe’s recent visit to Iran in which he sought to diffuse simmering tensions between Washington and Tehran that hit a boiling point Thursday when the ships were attacked.

The leaders discussed the visit as well as the “circumstances surrounding the attacks,” the White House said in a statement.

“President Trump thanked Prime Minister Abe for his effort to facilitate communication with Iran,” the White House said.

Trump said Thursday it is “too soon” for the U.S. to engage in nuclear talks with Iran just minutes before Washington blamed Tehran for the attacks on the oil tankers near the Gulf of Oman, which is a critical waterway for the global energy trade.

Shortly after meeting with Abe, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in remarks carried by Iranian state news agency FARS that he did not see Trump as deserving of a message from him.

“I do not consider Trump, as a person, deserving to exchange messages with. We will not negotiate with the United States,” he said, according to FARS.

Tensions between Washington and Tehran have been at a fever pitch since Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. in May 2018 from an international pact aimed at reigning in Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for billions of dollars in relief from economic sanctions.

The Trump administration has since gone on to attempt to scuttle the agreement, which all other signatories — France, Russia, Germany, the UK, China, Iran and the EU — remain a party to.

The attempts to undermine the deal have included the reimposition of US sanctions on Iran oil exports that were lifted as part of the agreement.

That decision, in particular, drew strong condemnation from Iran amid a near-ceaseless diplomatic and economic effort the administration terms its “maximum pressure campaign” to bring Iran back to negotiations that would address its nuclear program and other regional activities the US says are destabilising.

Japan PM to meet Iran’s Khamenei to mediate with US

Also on Thursday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Iran of being responsible for the attacks near the Strait of Hormuz, describing the attacks as part of “an unacceptable campaign of escalating tension by Iran.”

The top diplomat said the US assessment is based on intelligence, the weapons that were used, the level of expertise needed to carry out the attacks, as well as other recent attacks on ships in the region the US has blamed on Iran.

The US on Friday released grainy video footage it says shows Iranian forces removing a mine from the hull of one of the ships that came under attack. The tanker, the Kokuka Courageous, is Japanese owned.

The strait is vital waterway with roughly one-third of the world’s liquefied natural gas and a fifth of its oil consumption transiting through it each day.
Kyodo News Agency reports that during his visit to mediate between the U.S. and Iran, Japanese PM Shinzō Abe asked Iran to release American prisoners held by Iran, though the response is "unclear" to the press. But Iran says it will not negotiate with the United States, rejecting Abe's bid to broker dialogue between the two countries amid escalating tensions in the Middle East. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif accuses the "B-Team" (Mohammed bin Salman, John Bolton and Benjamin Netanyahu) of sabotaging diplomacy, including Abe's meeting, to hide its "economic terrorism" by accusing Iran of attacking oil tankers.