Iran struck the United Arab Emirates’ Fujairah oil exporting zone with a drone, officials associated with the zone said in a statement released on Monday.
In a post on X in Arabic translated into English, the UAE government-run Fujairah Media Office confirmed “the occurrence of a fire” that was caused by a drone launched from Iran.
Security teams in Fujairah “immediately started dealing with the incident” and are continuing efforts to control the fire, the office added in the post.
Iranian officials did not immediately issue a public response to the Fujairah Media Office’s post. The Epoch Times could not immediately verify the authenticity of the Fujairah Media Office’s statement about the drone strike.
The strike, if confirmed, would be the first strike from Iran on one of its Gulf Arab neighbors since the start of a ceasefire between Washington and Tehran that was announced last month.
Iran struck the Fujairah exporting zone in March, causing a fire and also prompting some oil operations to be halted by the UAE government. At the time, the country’s civil defense forces contained the fire, officials said.
Fujairah, located outside of the Strait of Hormuz, is the outlet for about 1 million barrels per day of the UAE’s Murban crude oil, which comprises about 1 percent of world demand.
Monday’s incident comes after the UK Maritime Trade Operations center said a cargo ship caught fire off the coast of the UAE on Monday. It said the fire was in the vessel’s engine room and that the ship’s crew was accounted for.
Iran’s effective closure of the strait, which runs between Iran and Oman, has caused a spike in worldwide fuel prices and rattled the global economy. The U.S.-led Joint Maritime Information Center is now advising ships to cross the strait via Omani territorial waters, saying it set up an “enhanced security area.”
The U.S. military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) also said Monday that two American-flagged merchant ships were “safely headed on their journey” after transiting the Strait of Hormuz. It said U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyers in the Persian Gulf were helping restore traffic.
CENTCOM said in a statement on X that U.S. destroyers had also transited the strait. It did not say when the Navy ships arrived or when the merchant vessels departed.
President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post on Sunday that the U.S. military would “guide” ships out of the strait and warned that Iranian efforts to block them “will, unfortunately, have to be dealt with forcefully.”
On Monday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard claimed to have launched what it said was a maritime control zone in the Strait of Hormuz, according to state-run media outlet Tasnim News.
The White House did not immediately reply to an Epoch Times request for comment on Monday.