The U.S.-Iran war threatened to mark a major expansion into the Mediterranean with the apparent drone attack on a U.S.-owned gas storage vessel in port in Damietta, Egypt on July 29—the fire from which spread to a second vessel moored next to it. Both crews were evacuated, and no injuries were reported. No party has claimed responsibility, but many in the Western media are working to assert that the drone was Iranian.
The Egyptian cabinet confirmed Thursday morning that the fire was caused by a drone attack rather than by an accident. Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said early Thursday that authorities had recovered wreckage of the drone and were conducting a security analysis to determine its origin, adding that Cairo would base its conclusions on facts rather than speculation.
European and Israeli media have already begun fanning the flames by insinuating Iran was behind the attack. Euronews and several Israeli outlets, including Ynet and i24NEWS, claimed that Iranian state television broadcast a map days before the strike naming Damietta among a list of possible targets for retaliation against Ukrainian interests, following the July 25 Ukrainian attack on an Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea. The New York Times separately reported that two unnamed Iranians said the explosion was intended to “show that global shipping and energy supplies could be more deeply disrupted if Iran chose to escalate.” Yemen’s Houthis denied involvement, with a Foreign Ministry source telling the Saba news agency that the group’s operations are directed only at Saudi Arabia.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X Thursday that “Egypt is an important friend and partner in the region, and its security is of utmost importance to us. We must all be vigilant against Israeli plots and false-flag operations designed to undermine regional peace. The threat is clear, mutual, and fearful of Muslim solidarity.”
Damietta is on the Mediterranean coast about 55 km west of Port Said, the northern terminus of the Suez Canal, and the only other exit point for Saudi Arabia and the Red Sea other than the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
