London, Aug 3 (IANS) A tanker reported hearing an explosion in close proximity to the vessel near the eastern entrance to the Strait of Hormuz, though both the vessel and its crew were reported safe, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said.
According to a UKMTO advisory on Sunday, the agency received the report from the vessel’s master at 20:37 GMT on Sunday. The master said the explosion was heard while the vessel was about 20 nautical miles northeast of Khasab, Oman.
The UKMTO advised vessels transiting the area to exercise caution and report any suspicious activity to the agency.
As tensions between the United States and Iran have escalated again, the UKMTO has reported a series of maritime security incidents in recent days, most of them occurring off Oman’s coast near the Strait of Hormuz, reports Xinhua news agency.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said on Sunday (Washington time) that negotiations with Iran will begin Monday afternoon, noting that Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar had asked the United States to call off planned strikes because “they think there’s a deal.”
“There’s a deal on (the Strait of) Hormuz, and then there will be a deal on the nuclear, or you might call it the denuclearisation of Iran,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One en route to Joint Base Andrews.
Claiming that Iran had also asked the United States to pull back the planned strikes, Trump said that “now what we’re doing is we’re talking to them in the form of a negotiation.”
Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud spoke on the phone with Trump on Saturday and “expressed concern and asked for clarity” about the proposed plan of action against Iran, a US official told news outlet Axios.
Pakistan, Qatar, the UAE, Türkiye and other countries have also called on the United States and Iran to de-escalate tensions and avoid further conflict.
–IANS
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