US President Donald Trump joined the chorus of American voices blaming Iran for the suspected attack on two tankers near the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump, speaking on Fox News Friday morning said the country is in "deep, deep trouble" after the US pulled out of a 2015 deal that lifted sanctions in exchange to revisions to Iran's nuclear programme.
"Iran did do it and you know they did it because you saw the boat," Trump said.
He was referring to a video released by US Central Command that officials say depicted Iranian forces removing an unexploded limpet mine from the 27,000-dwt Kokuka Courageous (built 2010), owned by Japanese outfit Kokuka Sangyo.
"I guess one of the mines didn't explode and it's probably got, essentially Iran written all over it."
He added that if Iran were to close the Strait of Hormuz — through which 30% of all the world's seaborne oil passes each day — "it won't be closed for very long."
The other ship involved was Frontline's 110,000-dwt Front Altair (built 2016), which was said to have been hit by explosives.
Bellingcat, a website specialising in online, open source investigations, said the ship depicted in the video appears to be the same as ones used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, based on comparisons between the video and Iranian domestic media reports.
Maritime security firm Dryad Global stopped short of blaming Iran, but did say that it is "increasingly likely" the attacks were carried out by a state-backed entity.
Both said a motive for the attacks was hard to come by.
The video evidence provided by the US differs from what Kokuka Sangyo president Yutaka Katada told reporters in Tokyo, that the ship was hit by flying objects, not an explosive attached to the ship.
During his TV call-in Friday, Trump said the deal, hashed out by President Barack Obama, was an "outrage" that emboldened the Islamic republic.
"When I came into office, they were an absolute terror," Trump said. "They were all over the place, they were in Yemen, they were in Syria. Fourteen different sites of conflict, they were in charge of every single place."
He said he was ready to negotiate with Iran, despite the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei saying the country would "in no way" do so.
