Oil prices spike after 2 missiles hit Iranian tanker

Ships.
(Image credit: JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER/AFP/Getty Images)

Oil prices jumped by 2 percent early Friday after Iranian state news IRNA reported that two missiles had hit an oil tanker belonging to the National Iranian Oil Company in the Red Sea off the Saudi Arabian coast, CNBC reports. Saheb Sadeghi, head of public relations at the National Iranian Tanker Company, said the projectiles "possibly" were fired from Saudi territory, although Tehran did not immediately say who it blamed for the attack. Regardless, analysts said the incident could further raise tensions in the region. "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," private maritime security firm Dryad Maritime said.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.