Egypt's government on Sunday 2 August urged domestic and foreign media to report accurately on the drone attack at the port of Damietta, citing foreign coverage it had monitored but declined to name, and said no investigative findings would be released before its inquiry completes1.
The attack hit an American-owned gas vessel moored at an Egyptian terminal on 29 July, which makes Cairo the state with jurisdiction over the wreck, the debris and any forensic attribution. Egypt is also a mediator in this war and a country whose gas imports and Suez transit revenues both depend on shipowners believing the eastern Mediterranean is insurable. Naming an author would force a response; withholding one keeps the file open and Cairo's options with it.
The practical effect falls on attribution itself. With the only claim of Iranian authorship coming from two anonymous officials in a foreign newspaper, and the Iranian Foreign Ministry denying it outright, the government holding the physical evidence has said it will publish nothing on its own timetable.
