The Pentagon refused to disclose whether the US armed forces were responsible for a huge oil slick floating through the Persian Gulf from Iran’s biggest crude export facility located on Kharg Island.
Thus leaving the door open for speculation about possible connections between the two recent events.
According to satellite images, the slick first appeared near the western shore of the island, which accounts for around 90% of Iran’s oil exports.
By Friday, its extent had reached approximately 71 square kilometers, while imagery suggested that crude oil was still being leaked from the terminal.
However, the Pentagon refused to comment on whether the US military observed the situation or made strikes against the island recently.
As for the reasons for the spill, they remain unknown.
The experts believe that it can be either a failure of the equipment or some kind of damage caused by an airstrike or anything else since it is a battlefield now.
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So far, the Iranian officials have neither confirmed nor refuted the source of the incident, trying to emphasize a peaceful nature of their activities on the island.
Since the slick was detected, about 80,000 barrels worth of crude has escaped into the Gulf, estimated Ami Daniel, chief executive of maritime intelligence firm Windward AI.
If conditions held, the plume was moving southwest and could hit the coastlines of the United Arab Emirates, Qatar or Saudi Arabia within the next fortnight, he said.
He also warned that a cleanup effort was unlikely as long as the waters remained contested.
Other commentators gave a relatively optimistic forecast.
Nina Noelle, a specialist in international crisis management operations for Greenpeace Germany, believed that the latest photographs showed signs that the spill was beginning to dissipate and that there was little likelihood of it reaching shore.
However, she pointed out that some marine environments might be impacted.
This development is occurring against a backdrop of increasing tension between Washington and Tehran.
American military forces launched an airstrike on Kharg Island, involving a significant aerial assault targeting over 90 military objectives without damaging any oil facilities.
These attacks have been ongoing since then, and on Friday, two Iranian tankers were disabled in the Strait of Hormuz.
