Emily Thornberry rows back on Jeremy Corbyn saying no ‘credible evidence’ Iran behind tanker attacks

Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry has rowed back on claims made by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn that there was no ‘credible evidence’ that Iran was responsible for attacks on two oil tankers.

Mr Corbyn made the claim after the the Foreign Office said it was ‘almost certain’ in its assessment that ‘a branch of the Iranian military… attacked the two tankers on 13 June’. 

But Ms Thornberry – who was recently axed from the role of standing in for Mr Corbyn at PMQs – appeared to row back on his assessment by saying Britain had ‘processes’ for assessing whether or not Iran was behind the attacks.

Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry has rowed back on claims made by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn that there was no ‘credible evidence’ that Iran was responsible for attacks on two oil tankers

She told the BBC’s Today programme: ‘We have to start off as the UN as Germany as Jeremy Hunt said on your programme yesterday, we need to establish proper evidence on what happens in this case.’ 

‘As the UN and Germany have said, we need to make sure we have independent evidence on that [the attack]. 

‘I listened very carefully to what Jeremy Hunt said yesterday and he said that we will make our own independent assessment for that, we have processes for doing that and that absolutely has to be right.’ 

She appeared to suggest that Iran could have carried out the tanker attack after taking the ‘bait’ of Western sanctions against Iran’s sale of oil. 

She said: ‘There may be an argument that the Iranians might take the view that if the West is going to block their sales of oil, then they will disrupt our oil sales.

‘I understand that, I understand the arguments and as I’ve said three or four times now, so long as there is independent evidence of that, then we need to move on,’ she added. 

The explosions on Thursday left one of the oil tankers, the Norwegian MT Front Altair, burning outside in the Gulf of Oman.

The Japanese-owned Kokuka Courageous was also attacked. 

Ms Thornberry’s comments came after Mr Corbyn tweeted this morning: ‘Britain should act to ease tensions in the Gulf, not fuel a military escalation that began with US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear agreement.

Mr Corbyn questioned whether Iran was responsible for the tanker attacks

Mr Corbyn questioned whether Iran was responsible for the tanker attacks

He said on Twitter that 'without credible evidence' about who carried out the attacks, the government's 'rhetoric' would 'increase the threat of war'

He said on Twitter that ‘without credible evidence’ about who carried out the attacks, the government’s ‘rhetoric’ would ‘increase the threat of war’  

‘Without credible evidence about the tanker attacks, the government’s rhetoric will only increase the threat of war.’

Ms Thornberry also warned against getting ‘enmeshed’ in another war following the Iraq conflict, echoing Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s warning yesterday of ‘unintended but catastrophic consequences’ if Iran was shown to be behind the attack.

She said: ‘Even if we assume the Iranians have taken the bait on this, we have to think about the more important question which is, “good heavens how serious this is, how serious this is and just the scale of what it is that we may be about to get dragged into”.   

‘The question is this: what Colin Powell’s chief of staff has said is that we are talking about a country which is seven times the size of Syria, it has three-and-a-half times the population of Syria before the war, these are extremely dangerous developments and we really have to pause and think about where we are going next. 

‘The idea that we are going to get enmeshed in another war is something that we really need to think about very carefully.’  

This morning, Mr Hunt hit back at Mr Corbyn’s comments and said it was ‘almost certain’ Tehran was behind the attacks. 

The explosions on Thursday left one of the oil tankers, the Norwegian MT Front Altair, burning outside the Strait of Hormuz waterway

The explosions on Thursday left one of the oil tankers, the Norwegian MT Front Altair, burning outside the Strait of Hormuz waterway

A fire rages on board the oil tanker MT Front Altair after it was hit by an explosion in the Gulf of Oman, in what was initially described as a torpedo attack

A fire rages on board the oil tanker MT Front Altair after it was hit by an explosion in the Gulf of Oman, in what was initially described as a torpedo attack 

He accused him of persistently failing to stand up for British interests and British allies.

‘Pathetic and predictable,’ he tweeted.

‘From Salisbury to the Middle East, why can he never bring himself to back British allies, British intelligence or British interests?’

In a statement, the Foreign Office said ‘no other state or non-state actor could plausibly have been responsible’ for the incident.

It was broadly in line with the assessment of the United States which has firmly blamed Iran – a claim which Tehran denies. 

Yesterday, the US military released footage said to show an unexploded mine being removed from one of the tankers by Iranian special forces.

But Iranian president Hassan Rouhani accused the US of ‘carrying out an aggressive policy and posing a serious threat to regional stability’.

Mr Hunt hit back at Mr Corbyn's comments and said it was 'almost certain' Tehran was behind the attacks

Mr Hunt hit back at Mr Corbyn’s comments and said it was ‘almost certain’ Tehran was behind the attacks

Mr Hunt called Mr Corbyn's comments 'pathetic and predictable'

Mr Hunt called Mr Corbyn’s comments ‘pathetic and predictable’ 

Tehran’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif, earlier said the US ‘immediately jumped to make allegations against Iran without a shred of factual or circumstantial evidence’. 

Mr Hunt had earlier said Britain’s assessment ‘leads us to conclude that responsibility for the attacks almost certainly lies with Iran’.

‘These latest attacks build on a pattern of destabilising Iranian behaviour and pose a serious danger to the region,’ he said.

‘We call on Iran urgently to cease all forms of destabilising activity. The UK remains in close coordination with international partners to find diplomatic solutions to de-escalate tensions.’

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