WASHINGTON — Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, is being investigated by federal prosecutors in New York for possible lobbying violations.
That's according to a report Friday in The New York Times, citing two anonymous people familiar with the inquiry.
One of the Times' sources says the investigation is related to Giuliani's efforts to undermine former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.
Two Florida businessmen tied to Giuliani were charged Thursday with federal campaign finance violations. The men had key roles in Giuliani's efforts to launch a Ukrainian corruption investigation against Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden and his son Hunter. A whistleblower complaint about Trump's involvement with Ukraine has led to an impeachment investigation.
Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch (C) arrives for a deposition before members of the House of Representatives, on Oct. 11, 2019, in Washington, DC. ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP/Getty Images
In a 10-page statement obtained by The New York Times and The Washington Post, Yovanovitch defended her tenure and decried the "concerted campaign" to recall her from Ukraine, which she said is tied directly to President Trump. Yovanovitch also rebuked the two associates of Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani who were arrested this week on campaign finance charges that were tied to an effort to get her removed.
Here's a breakdown of three of the most explosive lines from her statement:
Victim of "unfounded and false claims"
Yovanovitch: "Although I understand that I served at the pleasure of the President, I was nevertheless incredulous that the US government chose to remove an ambassador based, as best as I can tell, on unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives."
Context: Here, Yovanovitch pushes back on the negative information about her that was being circulated by Giuliani — attacks that made their way to Trump and also the State Department. This includes allegations that she pressured Ukraine not to investigate specific cases, and that she was part of an effort by Ukraine to meddle in the 2016 election to defeat Trump. There is no evidence to support those allegations, and Yovanovitch said they were "unfounded and false."
A rebuke of Giuliani's arrested associates
Yovanovitch: "With respect to Mayor Giuliani, I have had only minimal contacts with him -- a total of three that I recall. None related to the events at issue. I do not know Mr. Giuliani's motives for attacking me. But individuals who have been named in the press as contacts of Mr. Giuliani may well have believed that their personal financial ambitions were stymied by our anti-corruption policy in Ukraine."
Context: This is the key paragraph where Yovanovitch connects all the dots. She suggests that Giuliani's associates might have tried to get her removed from her post because she was legitimately fighting corruption, which could have harmed their business ventures. Prosecutors said the men — Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman — who were indicted Thursday, illegally poured Russian cash into US campaigns last year and tried to leverage their newfound influence to benefit a legal marijuana enterprise.
Trump pressured State Department to remove her
Yovanovitch: "I met with the Deputy Secretary of State, who informed me of the curtailment of my term. He said that the President had lost confidence in me and no longer wished me to serve as his ambassador. He added that there had been a concerted campaign against me, and that the Department had been under pressure from the President to remove me since the Summer of 2018. He also said that I had done nothing wrong and that this was not like other situations where he had recalled ambassadors for cause."
Context: Yovanovitch sheds new light on her conversations with US Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan. Yovanovitch's testimony gives the impression that Sullivan was not onboard with the decision to remove her from Ukraine and that the decision came directly from the President. Democratic lawmakers will surely want to talk Sullivan him about these conversations. Trump announced his intention Friday to nominate Sullivan as US ambassador to Russia.
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish forces stepped up their bombardment around a town in northeast Syria on Saturday, the fourth day of an offensive against a Kurdish militia, after U.S. troops in the region came under artillery fire from Turkish positions.
An explosion and smoke are seen over the Syrian town of Ras al-Ain as seen from the Turkish border town of Ceylanpinar, Sanliurfa province, Turkey, October 12, 2019. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov
The United States has ramped up its efforts to persuade Ankara to halt the incursion against the U.S.-backed Kurdish forces, saying Ankara was causing “great harm” to ties and could face sanctions.
Turkey opened its offensive after U.S. President Donald Trump spoke by phone on Sunday with Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan and withdrew U.S. troops who had been fighting alongside Kurdish forces.
On Friday evening, Erdogan dismissed mounting international criticism of the operation and said Turkey “will not stop it, no matter what anyone says”.
On the frontlines, thick plumes of smoke rose around Ras al Ain, one of two Syrian border towns targeted in the offensive, as Turkish artillery targeted the area on Saturday, said a Reuters reporter across the frontier in the Turkish town of Ceylanpinar.
Intense gunfire also resounded from within the town of Ras al Ain itself, while warplanes could be heard flying overhead, he said.
It was quieter at Tel Abyad, the operation’s other main target some 120 km (75 miles) to the west, with only occasional shell fire heard in the area, another Reuters reporter said.
Earlier, the Pentagon said U.S. troops came under artillery fire from Turkish positions on Friday but none of its soldiers were wounded, near Syria’s Kobani, some 60 km (37 miles) west of the main area of conflict.
Turkey’s Defence Ministry said its forces did not open fire at the U.S. base and took all precautions to prevent any harm to it while it was responding to fire from a nearby area by the Kurdish YPG militia, which Ankara regards as a terrorist group.
“U.S. and coalition soldiers were definitely not hit. Indeed the necessary coordination is being carried out by our headquarters and the Americans,” Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar was quoted as saying on Saturday.
Akar was speaking as he and military commanders visited operation headquarters along the border, state-owned Anadolu news agency reported.
Seventy-four Kurdish-led fighters, 49 Turkey-backed Syrian rebels and 20 civilians have been killed in the fighting, according to war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The United Nations has said 100,000 people have fled their homes.
Turkey’s Defence Ministry said 415 YPG militants had been “neutralized” since the operation began, a term that commonly means killed.
For a graphic on 'Turkey hits Kurdish militia targets', click here
ISLAMIC STATE
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), with the Kurdish YPG as its main fighting element, now holds most of the territory that once made up Islamic State’s “caliphate” in Syria, and has been keeping thousands of fighters from the jihadist group in jail and tens of thousands of their family members in camps.
The Kurdish militia say the Turkish assault could allow the jihadist group to re-emerge as some of its followers were escaping from prisons.
In its first big attack since the assault began on Tuesday, Islamic State claimed responsibility for a deadly car bomb in Qamishli, the largest city in the Kurdish-held area, even as the city came under Turkish shelling.
Five Islamic State fighters fled a jail there, and foreign women from the group being held in a camp torched tents and attacked guards with sticks and stones, the SDF said.
U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper has told his Turkish counterpart they should deescalate the situation before it becomes “irreparable”, while European Council President Donald Tusk warned it could lead to a “humanitarian catastrophe”.
Erdogan’s spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, responded to the criticism on Saturday, saying “Turkey’s fight is against terrorists, not Kurds or civilians”, and telling those who condemn Turkey that thousands of civilians were killed in U.S.-led coalition operations in Syria’s Raqqa and Iraq’s Mosul.
“Blackmail and threats will never deter Turkey from its just cause,” Kalin wrote on Twitter. “God willing victory will be ours.”
U.S. lawmakers introduced more legislation on Friday seeking stiff sanctions on Turkey over the offensive, underscoring unhappiness from both Democrats and President Trump’s fellow Republicans in Congress over his Syria policy.
U.S. military officials denied lawmakers’ accusations that the Trump administration had abandoned U.S. allies to a Turkish military onslaught.
Ankara says it aims to defeat the YPG, which it sees as an enemy for its links to PKK militants who have fought a decades-old insurgency in Turkey in which 40,000 people have been killed.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Trump had authorized the drafting of “very significant” new sanctions against Turkey, a NATO ally. Washington was not activating the curbs now but would do so if necessary, Mnuchin said.
Turkey aims to set up a “safe zone” inside Syria, where it can resettle many of the 3.6 million refugees it has been hosting. Erdogan threatened to send refugees to Europe if the European Union did not back his assault, prompting a furious response from the EU.
We are less than three weeks out from the start of the impeachment inquiry. Recapping just the last seven days:
Lawyers for the whistleblower said they were representing another whistleblower
The White House declared political war on the impeachment inquiry and blocked testimony by a key diplomat.
Two Soviet-born associates of Rudy Giuliani who helped his efforts in Ukraine were arrested on unrelated campaign finance charges.
Now, the former US ambassador to Ukraine defied the White House to accuse President Donald Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani of targeting her.
We'll send a special edition of this newsletter Sunday if news warrants. Otherwise, we'll publish as usual on Monday.
Yovanovitch defies White House
The White House and State Department apparently told her not to testify, according to Democratic committee chairmen.
She testified without a State Department lawyer and, according to White House talking points, was in jeopardy of accidentally revealing classified information.
She said believed Trump removed her after pressure from Giuliani.
She said she was told by the deputy secretary of state her removal was unusual.
She had a stark warning about the state of US diplomacy.
CNN's Marshall Cohen pulled out five key passages from Yovanovitch's 10-page opening statement and put some context around them. Check out his full piece or read the selections below.
...unfounded and false claims...
"Although I understand that I served at the pleasure of the President, I was nevertheless incredulous that the US government chose to remove an ambassador based, as best as I can tell, on unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives."
I do not know Mr. Giuliani's motives for attacking me.
"With respect to Mayor Giuliani, I have had only minimal contacts with him -- a total of three that I recall. None related to the events at issue. I do not know Mr. Giuliani's motives for attacking me. But individuals who have been named in the press as contacts of Mr. Giuliani may well have believed that their personal financial ambitions were stymied by our anti-corruption policy in Ukraine."
... come back to Washington from Ukraine on the next plane.
"...after being asked by the Department in early March to extend my tour until 2020, I was then abruptly told in late April to come back to Washington from Ukraine on the next plane."
... this was not like other situations...
"I met with the Deputy Secretary of State, who informed me of the curtailment of my term. He said that the President had lost confidence in me and no longer wished me to serve as his ambassador. He added that there had been a concerted campaign against me, and that the Department had been under pressure from the President to remove me since the Summer of 2018. He also said that I had done nothing wrong and that this was not like other situations where he had recalled ambassadors for cause."
...take action now to defend this great institution...
"Today, we see the State Department attacked and hollowed out from within. State Department leadership, with Congress, needs to take action now to defend this great institution, and its thousands of loyal and effective employees. We need to rebuild diplomacy as the first resort to advance America's interests and the front line of America's defense. I fear that not doing so will harm our nation's interest, perhaps irreparably."
New Timeline
This impeachment story arguably started years ago, with protests in Ukraine in 2014 that toppled the government there, angering Vladimir Putin, who invaded Crimea. Here's how that set off a chain of events that ultimately triggered the current investigation.
Trump takes a loss in his other big fight with Congress
The Trump administration is keen on rewriting the rules of justice as they pertain to the President.
But the all-powerful untouchable executive strategy was checked by a judge overseeing a case involving Trump's tax returns -- which he, breaking previous presidential precedent, has refused to release. A panel of federal judges in DC ruled Trump's accounting firm must turn over his tax records to a House committee. They also suggested Trump's argument against the legality of the impeachment inquiry is seriously flawed.
"The fact that the subpoena in this case seeks information that concerns the President of the United States adds a twist, but not a surprising one," the majority wrote. There will certainly be an appeal.
Judge Neomi Rao wrote a dissent and previewed the fight that could be coming to a Supreme Court near you when she warned that Congress could become "a roving inquisition over a co-equal branch of government."
The very fine Rubio line
Republicans continue to contort themselves during interactions with reporters as they try to avoid either condoning or condemning Trump's behavior.
Yesterday we pointed out the incredible stamina of Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner in not answering whether it was appropriate for a president to invite foreign election influence. Today, Marco Rubio, clarified on Twitter that when Rubio said he didn't think Trump was being serious by asking China to investigate Biden, he was not suggesting Trump was kidding.
Rubio's tweet: "Some taking liberty of reporting I said Trump was 'joking' or 'kidding' about Biden & China I said wasn't "serious" request. Stand by it 100%. Disagree? Find use of 'joking' or 'kidding' in my statement Describe what potential legal consequences this poses for Biden or son"
What else?
Giuliani and Trump -- The President is now expressing concerns about Giuliani's ties to the Ukrainians arrested this week. According to CNN's White House team, Trump is not happy with coverage on television -- but Giuliani is still his lawyer, but a source tells CNN's Pam Brown that he's no longer working on Ukraine.
Trump and the Bidens and China -- Trump repeated his attacks on Hunter Biden during a rally in Minneapolis Thursday, again accusing Joe Biden's son of wrongdoing in China. Full fact check
Trade deal with China -- In Washington after a meeting with the Chinese Vice Premier Friday, Trump said he did not bring up his public request for China to investigate Biden during trade talks. The US and China moved toward a mini trade agreement Friday ahead of scheduled tariff increases next week.
HR McMaster weighs in -- Trump's former national security adviser said it is "absolutely not" appropriate for a president to ask other countries to interfere in the political process of the US.
The Vienna connection - Rudy Giuliani told Elaina Plott of the Atlantic he was supposed to be en route to Vienna on Thursday night. That's the same city his two arrested associates were bound for when they were detained at the airport.
Help for Giuliani clients -- The Post and the Times report that Trump tried during an Oval Office meeting to get his former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to find a diplomatic deal to benefit a Turkish-Iranian gold dealer who was being prosecuted by the US and who was represented by Giuliani.
Smoke and mirrors -- Trump had this WSJ Op-Ed on Ukraine by Kimberley Strassel, with the headline "Smoke and Mirrors" sent to every Republican senator.
On the podcast
Guest host and CNN chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto talked to former federal prosecutor Jennifer Rodgers about how Trump's political problem might become a criminal problem with this week's arrests. Listen here.
Here are the planned/possible witnesses scheduled to appear before Congress next week:
October 14: Dr. Fiona Hill, Trump's former Russia adviser
October 15: George Kent, US State Department deputy assistant secretary
October 17: Gordon Sondland, ambassador for the European Union
October 17*: T. Ulrich Brechbuhl, US State Department counselor and confidant of Pompeo. (*May be rescheduled in light of Sondland testimony.)
The House committees have also requested to talk to top US diplomat in Ukraine, Bill Taylor.
What are we doing here?
The President has invited foreign powers to interfere in the US presidential election.
Democrats want to impeach him for it.
It is a crossroads for the American system of government as the President tries to change what's acceptable for US politicians. This newsletter will focus on this consequential moment in US history.
Fallen power lines and damaged houses and vehicles in Ichihara, east of Tokyo, on Saturday.CreditKyodo Kyodo/Reuters
Typhoon Hagibis bore down on Japan on Saturday, its outer bands lashing the country’s eastern coast with heavy rains as cities and evacuation centers braced for landfall. Landslides and flooding were already being reported.
The Japan Meteorological Agency said Saturday afternoon that sustained winds from the typhoon had been measured at about 100 miles per hour, with gusts of up to 135 m.p.h. The storm was projected to make landfall around 6 p.m. on the Izu peninsula southwest of Tokyo.
On Friday, the agency warned that Hagibis could rival the Kanogawa typhoon of 1958, which killed more than 1,200 people in Shizuoka Prefecture and the Tokyo region. As of Saturday afternoon, one death had been reported when a truck overturned and killed a man in Chiba.
Hagibis so far
On Saturday afternoon, the Japan Meteorological Agency issued an extreme rain warning for Shizuoka, Kanagawa, Tokyo, Saitama, Gunma, Yamanashi and Nagano prefectures — the highest level of warning, rarely issued. Residents were urged to evacuate or move to higher floors in the “nearest sturdy building.”
Landslides were reported in Sagamihara, a suburb outside Tokyo. Water levels in close to 30 rivers, in prefectures including Tokyo, Kanagawa, Gunma and Shizuoka, had already exceeded levels considered dangerous by the meteorological agency.
Tokyo Electric Power Company said that 30,800 households were without power. The weather agency said the southeastern Tokai region could receive as much as 31 inches of rain in a 24-hour period.
As Hagibis approached this week — at one point the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane, with 160 m.p.h. winds — the Japanese authorities prepared for disruptions in the lives of millions. About 1.5 million people live below sea level in eastern parts of Tokyo, and meteorologists warned that as many as five million people might need to be evacuated if waters overwhelmed the levees in low-lying areas.
On Saturday afternoon, the public broadcaster NHK reported that local governments had prepared to evacuate more than 10 million people. Already, 432,000 people had been advised to evacuate in the Edogawa ward of Tokyo due to fears of heavy flooding. In Kawasaki City, outside Tokyo, more than 900,000 people had been urged to evacuate, according to NHK.
Hundreds of flights were canceled in anticipation of Hagibis, including all of All Nippon Airways’ domestic and international flights from airports in the Tokyo area on Saturday. Japan Railways suspended service in the Tokyo region on Saturday, as well as bullet train service between Tokyo and Osaka.
With the storm bearing down, Rugby World Cup organizers for the first time canceled two matches in Japan. Tourist attractions in Tokyo, including the Disneyland and DisneySea theme parks and the Ueno Zoo, closed on Saturday, as did hundreds of supermarkets and department stores in the city and nearby prefectures.
In Chiba Prefecture, a region still recovering from Typhoon Faxai in September, dozens of people began filing into repurposed schools and other evacuation centers. Faxai destroyed nearly 200 homes and left about 900,000 people without power.
Warnings from experts
On Friday in Tokyo, the secretary general of the World Meteorological Organization warned that tropical cyclones like Typhoon Hagibis were “among the most devastating of all natural hazards.”
Speaking at a meeting with Japanese officials, the secretary general, Petteri Taalas, said that since 1970, seven of the 10 disasters that caused the biggest economic losses around the world had been tropical cyclones. “They wreak havoc with their violent winds, torrential rainfall and associated storm surges and floods,” he said.
This week, Jeff Masters, a meteorologist with the magazine Scientific American, warned that a direct hit on Tokyo Bay could be “a multibillion dollar disaster.” Last year, Typhoon Jebi, the worst typhoon in 25 years, killed 11 people, injured hundreds and caused an estimated $12.6 billion in damage.
What makes a typhoon, cyclone or hurricane
Hurricane Dorian pummeled the Bahamas this year, obliterating homes in its path. Cyclone Idai barreled through Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, becoming one of the deadliest storms ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere.
All were tropical cyclones: circular storms that form over warm waters, with very low air pressure at the center and minimum winds of 74 m.p.h. But their location determines what they are called.
Typhoons develop in the northwestern Pacific. Hurricanes form in the North Atlantic, the northeastern Pacific, the Caribbean or the Gulf of Mexico. When a hurricane crosses the international date line in the Pacific, its status changes: Heading west, a hurricane becomes a typhoon, and heading east, a typhoon becomes a hurricane.
Storms that form in the southern Indian Ocean or the South Pacific are called tropical cyclones, and in the northern Indian Ocean simply cyclones. The storms receive their names — like Hagibis or Dorian — according to a list maintained by the World Meteorological Organization.
Storm seasons arrive at different moments in different parts of the world. Typhoons are most common from May to October; hurricane season officially lasts from June 1 to Nov. 30. Hurricane strength is rated on the Saffir-Simpson scale, which is based on sustained wind speed. The Japan Meteorological Agency rates typhoons by sustained wind speed, with three classifications: “typhoon,” “very strong typhoon” and “violent typhoon.”
The Joint Typhoon Warning Center, an American military command based in Hawaii, classifies the storms by four names: “tropical depression,” “tropical storm,” “typhoon” and “super typhoon.”
An Iranian oil tanker cruising 60 miles off the coast of Saudi Arabia was rocked by a pair of missiles Friday, briefly causing an oil leak and more broadly threatening to further inflame fraught regional tensions between the two heavyweight Muslim nations.
Iranian state television reported the explosions damaged two storerooms aboard the oil tanker – which is owned by the National Iranian Oil Company – and caused an oil leak into the Red Sea near the Saudi port city of Jeddah. The leak was later plugged, IRNA reported.
“This latest incident, if confirmed to be an act of aggression, is highly likely to be part of the wider narrative of deteriorating relations between Saudi and the U.S. and Iran,” according to an assessment provided to the Associated Press by private maritime security firm Dryad Maritime. “It is likely that the region, having been stable for the last month, will face another period of increasing maritime threats, as the Iranian and Saudi geopolitical stand-off continues.”
This photo released by the official news agency of the Iranian Oil Ministry, SHANA, shows Iranian oil tanker Sabiti traveling through the Red Sea Friday, Oct. 11, 2019. Two missiles struck the Iranian tanker Sabiti traveling through the Red Sea off the coast of Saudi Arabia on Friday, Iranian officials said, the latest incident in the region amid months of heightened tensions between Tehran and the U.S. (SHANA via AP)
The stricken vessel, identified by IRNA as the Sibiti, was carrying about 1 million barrels of crude oil when it was struck, an analysis from data firm Refinitiv showed.
The news agency did not say whom Iranian officials suspect may be responsible for launching the missiles.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi described the incident as an "attack" carried out by those committing "dangerous adventurism." In a statement, Mousavi said the Sabiti was struck twice in the span of a half-hour and an investigation was underway.
This photo released by the official news agency of the Iranian Oil Ministry, SHANA, shows Iranian oil tanker Sabiti traveling through the Red Sea Friday, Oct. 11, 2019. Two missiles struck the Iranian tanker Sabiti traveling through the Red Sea off the coast of Saudi Arabia on Friday, Iranian officials said, the latest incident in the region amid months of heightened tensions between Tehran and the U.S. (SHANA via AP)
Images taken from the ship's bridge that have been released by Iran's Petroleum Ministry did not appear to show any damage to the Sabiti, though the view did not show the ship's sides. Satellite images of the area did not show any visible smoke.
There has been no word from Saudi Arabia about the reported attack. Oil prices jumped by two percent after the news broke.
According to the AP, the Sabiti turned on its tracking devices late Friday morning in the Red Sea. The last time the vessel had turned on its tracking devices was in August near the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas.
This photo released by the official news agency of the Iranian Oil Ministry, SHANA, shows Iranian oil tanker Sabiti traveling through the Red Sea Friday, Oct. 11, 2019. Two missiles struck the Iranian tanker Sabiti traveling through the Red Sea off the coast of Saudi Arabia on Friday, Iranian officials said, the latest incident in the region amid months of heightened tensions between Tehran and the U.S. (SHANA via AP)
Iranian tankers routinely turn off their trackers due to U.S. sanctions that target the sale of Iran’s crude oil.
Lt. Pete Pagano, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet overseeing the Mideast, said authorities there were "aware of reports of this incident," but declined to comment further.
The reported attack comes after the U.S. has alleged that in past months Iran attacked oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, something denied by Tehran.
Fox News' Edmund DeMarche and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
An Iranian oil tanker cruising 60 miles off the coast of Saudi Arabia was rocked by a pair of missiles Friday, briefly causing an oil leak and more broadly threatening to further inflame fraught regional tensions between the two heavyweight Muslim nations.
Iranian state television reported the explosions damaged two storerooms aboard the oil tanker – which is owned by the National Iranian Oil Company – and caused an oil leak into the Red Sea near the Saudi port city of Jeddah. The leak was later plugged, IRNA reported.
“This latest incident, if confirmed to be an act of aggression, is highly likely to be part of the wider narrative of deteriorating relations between Saudi and the U.S. and Iran,” according to an assessment provided to the Associated Press by private maritime security firm Dryad Maritime. “It is likely that the region, having been stable for the last month, will face another period of increasing maritime threats, as the Iranian and Saudi geopolitical stand-off continues.”
This photo released by the official news agency of the Iranian Oil Ministry, SHANA, shows Iranian oil tanker Sabiti traveling through the Red Sea Friday, Oct. 11, 2019. Two missiles struck the Iranian tanker Sabiti traveling through the Red Sea off the coast of Saudi Arabia on Friday, Iranian officials said, the latest incident in the region amid months of heightened tensions between Tehran and the U.S. (SHANA via AP)
The stricken vessel, identified by IRNA as the Sibiti, was carrying about 1 million barrels of crude oil when it was struck, an analysis from data firm Refinitiv showed.
The news agency did not say whom Iranian officials suspect may be responsible for launching the missiles.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi described the incident as an "attack" carried out by those committing "dangerous adventurism." In a statement, Mousavi said the Sabiti was struck twice in the span of a half-hour and an investigation was underway.
This photo released by the official news agency of the Iranian Oil Ministry, SHANA, shows Iranian oil tanker Sabiti traveling through the Red Sea Friday, Oct. 11, 2019. Two missiles struck the Iranian tanker Sabiti traveling through the Red Sea off the coast of Saudi Arabia on Friday, Iranian officials said, the latest incident in the region amid months of heightened tensions between Tehran and the U.S. (SHANA via AP)
Images taken from the ship's bridge that have been released by Iran's Petroleum Ministry did not appear to show any damage to the Sabiti, though the view did not show the ship's sides. Satellite images of the area did not show any visible smoke.
There has been no word from Saudi Arabia about the reported attack. Oil prices jumped by two percent after the news broke.
According to the AP, the Sabiti turned on its tracking devices late Friday morning in the Red Sea. The last time the vessel had turned on its tracking devices was in August near the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas.
This photo released by the official news agency of the Iranian Oil Ministry, SHANA, shows Iranian oil tanker Sabiti traveling through the Red Sea Friday, Oct. 11, 2019. Two missiles struck the Iranian tanker Sabiti traveling through the Red Sea off the coast of Saudi Arabia on Friday, Iranian officials said, the latest incident in the region amid months of heightened tensions between Tehran and the U.S. (SHANA via AP)
Iranian tankers routinely turn off their trackers due to U.S. sanctions that target the sale of Iran’s crude oil.
Lt. Pete Pagano, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet overseeing the Mideast, said authorities there were "aware of reports of this incident," but declined to comment further.
The reported attack comes after the U.S. has alleged that in past months Iran attacked oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, something denied by Tehran.
Fox News' Edmund DeMarche and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
