A Saudi tanker was hit Tuesday near the coast of Oman, hours after Iran struck a Qatari natural gas tanker. At the same time, the funeral procession for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei entered its fourth day, with his coffin arriving in the central Iranian city of Qom. The two events come against the backdrop of the failure of the latest round of talks between Washington and Tehran and a threat issued Monday by US President Donald Trump, who said that if no deal was reached, "we will finish the job."
Iran renewed its attacks on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz overnight, with both ships apparently traveling along the "southern" route through the strait, which passes through Omani territorial waters. Iran views the route as undermining its control over the strait and continues to demand that vessels pass through only in coordination with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The first vessel hit was the Qatari liquefied natural gas tanker Al Rekayat, which was struck about 15 kilometers (9 miles) east of the port of Yama in Oman.
Reuters reported that the tanker was hit on its port side while sailing south and that a fire broke out in its engine room, but the crew was unharmed. Several hours later, a Saudi-flagged crude oil tanker was struck near the coast of Oman.
Axios added, citing two US officials, that Iran fired at least two missiles at the vessels Monday night and that both ships sustained significant damage, though there were no casualties.
Meanwhile, the funeral procession for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei entered its fourth day, reaching Qom in central Iran, a major center of Shiite religious study. According to AFP, Khamenei's coffin was placed in Jamkaran Mosque as thousands filled the streets of the city, which has about 1.5 million residents.
During the prayer ceremony at the mosque, the crowd chanted "Death to America." A procession later set out, carrying Khamenei's coffin, alongside the coffins of four family members killed with him, toward a shrine in the city.
On Wednesday, the coffin is scheduled to be flown to Iraq, where it will pass through the Shiite holy cities of Najaf and Karbala. The following day, it is set to arrive in Mashhad in eastern Iran for burial. Khamenei's son and successor, the new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, has not been seen at the ceremonies so far. He has not appeared in public since the start of the war after being wounded in the strike that killed his father.
According to a New York Times report over the weekend, Mojtaba Khamenei had asked to take part in the funeral procession, but security officials rejected his request out of concern that Israel would eliminate him during the ceremony or track his movements and locate his hiding place.
