Iranian authorities said they rescued 29 of the 30 crew members of a United Arab Emirates cargo ship that sank in Gulf waters off Iran on Thursday.
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“All but one of the ship’s 30 crew have been rescued so far“, declared to the official Iranian agency Irna the person in charge of crisis management of the province of Bouchehr (south-west), specifying that they were in the water with life jackets. The search is continuing to find the last person, he said. Earlier in the morning, the Iranian authorities had reported the sinking of the cargo ship carrying cars about fifty kilometers from the port of Assalouyeh in the province of Bouchehr. The name of the ship, its destination and the nationality of the personnel were not specified. According to the local Maritime Authority, quoted by state television, the Emirati ship had an engine problem and sank around 9:40 a.m. (0610 GMT). On Wednesday, the local Meteorological Organization had issued a “Red alertfor strong winds and turbulence at sea in this area. “Due to unfavorable weather conditions and strong winds” exceeding 70 km / h, the ship sank before the arrival of help, said the head of crisis management in Bouchehr.
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A port on the southern coast of Iran, Assalouyeh is an important petrochemical center on the Gulf. The wrecked boat did not damage the facilities of the Iranian Pars Sud gas field in Assalouyeh, an oil official told the Isna news agency. Iran and the Emirates expressed in December the hope of opening a new page in their relations. Their diplomatic ties had been reduced in 2016 but the two countries bordering the Gulf remain important economic partners.
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