Iran ship in Red Sea blast

An Iranian freighter was hit by an “explosion” in the Red Sea, Tehran said Wednesday, after US media reported Israel had struck the ship in retaliation for past Iranian strikes on its vessels.

The explosion comes at a sensitive time as US President Joe Biden attempts to revive a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran which was strongly opposed by Israel and abandoned by his predecessor Donald Trump in 2018.

The blast struck the “Iranian commercial vessel” MV Saviz off the coast of Djibouti on Tuesday morning, foreign ministry spokesman Said Khatibzadeh said, adding an inquiry had been opened into the cause.

The New York Times cited a US official as saying Israel had informed Washington it had struck the ship in “retaliation for earlier Iranian strikes on Israeli vessels”.