The United Arab Emirates has accused Iran of launching drone strikes on two tankers managed by a state-owned oil enterprise as they navigated the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz. On Friday, UAE officials characterized these assaults as acts of piracy. Although the drone attacks didn’t result in any injuries, they serve as a stark reminder of the perils awaiting vessels transporting goods through this crucial maritime route, which links the Persian Gulf to international waters and remains tightly monitored by Iran.
Stay informed on the latest events in the broader Middle Eastern conflict and the ongoing tensions with Iran. We provide in-depth coverage of these issues on our site.
Drone strikes disrupt the passage of two oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.
According to reports from ADNOC, the state-owned oil and gas giant based in Abu Dhabi, two of its tankers were targeted on Thursday evening as they moved through the Strait of Hormuz. The company assured that no injuries were reported and confirmed that “the situation has been brought under control.”
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center, part of the British military, stated that two vessels sustained minor damage from drone attacks during their transit of the Strait of Hormuz. While not explicitly naming ADNOC’s ships, the described incident seems to match the situation reported by the UAE oil company.
The UAE’s Foreign Ministry blamed the attacks on Iran and said they were a “flagrant violation” of the United Nations’ principles of freedom of navigation.
“Targeting commercial shipping and using the Strait of Hormuz as a tool of economic coercion or blackmail represents acts of piracy by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, and constitutes a direct threat to the stability of the region, its peoples, and global energy security,” the Foreign Ministry said.
There was no immediate response from Iran.
Kushner will head to Middle East for talks on Gaza
President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and negotiator Jared Kushner will travel to the Middle East next week to try to advance plans for an end to the conflict in Gaza after a deal recently announced by the Trump administration ran into Israeli opposition.
An official with the Board of Peace, the body Trump established to oversee the fragile ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, said Kushner, board high representative Nickolay Mladenov, and executive board member and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair would arrive in Israel on Sunday.
The group will then travel to Cairo, where meetings of a Palestinian technocratic group set to assume control of Gaza under a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal have been taking place for the past several months, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because planning for details of the trip has not yet been finalized,
The trip was reported earlier by Axios.
— Matthew Lee in Washington
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.