Financial Times – Iran raises threat to Mideast shipping lanes with seizure of oil tanker in Gulf 

The FT leads with the Iranian navy seizing a tanker off the coast in Oman, amid tensions in the nearby Red Sea with assaults on vessels by Tehran-backed Houthi rebels. 

The paper says as British and American forces prepared to attack the Iran-backed Houthis, the seizure has “raised fears that Tehran could step up its own attacks”. 

One analyst is quoted saying that “seizing tankers is a go-to Iranian move” and that the seizure shows that the Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping are “part of a bigger regional threat that could escalate despite efforts to contain a crisis sparked by the Israel-Gaza war”.