Reza Marashi, research director of the National Iranian American Council, which supports the talks, said Iran may have boarded the ship because of suspicions it was from rival Saudi Arabia and heading to the United Arab Emirates. “If that’s true, it could be part of an escalation in the conflict between Tehran and Riyadh,” Marashi said. One theory he offered was that the Iranians could be retaliating for the Saudi bombing of a landing strip in Yemen where Iran was said to be planning to land a plane.
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