Benjamin Netanyahu
Photographer: Lior Mizrahi / Getty Images
Photographer: Lior Mizrahi / Getty Images
An Iranian missile hit an Israeli ship sailing from Tanzania to India, said Channel 12 in Israel, without saying where it got the information from or how Iran was involved.
This is the fourth time in about a month that bitter enemies have negotiated allegations of attacks at sea and are on the back of heightened tensions, while Israel opposes US President Joe Biden’s efforts to join the 2015 agreement that limited nuclear activities. of Iran.
The Israeli army spokesman did not comment and there was no response from XT Management, the quoted Channel 12 company owning the Israeli ship. Officials in Iran, where a public holiday is being held, could not be reached for comment.
The cargo ship continued its destination, according to Ronen Solomon, intelligence analyst and head of The Intelli Times blog, which confirmed details about the reported attack in the Arabian Sea with close people. He identified the ship as LORI and said a rocket or mine deployed by one of Iran’s small military boat fleets was most likely responsible.
Earlier this month, Iran said Israel was likely behind an explosion that damaged an Iranian container ship in the Mediterranean, and the Israeli environment minister claimed that an Iranian ship was deliberately dumping oil into Israeli waters. An Israeli maritime intelligence company, Windward, later said the oil spill probably came from the oil trade that stopped sanctions between Iran and Syria.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in February that Iran was responsible for an unexplained explosion on an Israeli-owned cargo ship in the Persian Gulf. The Israeli daily Haaretz reported last week that Israel had hit dozens of Iranian oil tankers in recent weeks, causing cumulative damage to Iran of billions of dollars.
“This is not the beginning of a naval campaign, but rather we are in the middle of one,” Solomon said.
– With the assistance of Golnar Motevalli and Yaacov Benmeleh
(Updates with analyst comments starting with the fourth paragraph.)