UAE says Gulf of Oman tanker attacks 'dangerous escalation'

The United Arab Emirates said Friday that twin attacks on tankers in the Sea of Oman just weeks after four ships were damaged off the UAE coast marked a dangerous escalation".

"The attack against the tankers in the Gulf of Oman is a worrying development and a dangerous escalation," the UAE minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, tweeted after Thursday's blasts.

Gargash also condemned a Yemeni rebel missile attack which wounded 26 civilians at an airport in southwestern Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.

He said the "blatant attack on civilians" was only the latest in a spate of rebel assaults "undermining the UN's political work & sending a message of continuing violence & hostility".

These developments "must spur the international community to act to maintain peace and security in the region", Gargash said.

"The responsibility for avoiding an escalation is collective."