Benjamin Netanyahu
Photographer: Lior Mizrahi / Getty Images
Photographer: Lior Mizrahi / Getty Images
An Iranian missile hit an Israeli ship sailing from Tanzania to India, Israel’s Channel 12 said, without saying where it obtained the information or how Iran was implicated.
It is the fourth time in about a month that bitter enemies have exchanged allegations of attacks at sea, and this is amid increased tensions, while Israel is opposed to the efforts of U.S. President Joe Biden to join the 2015 agreement. that limited Iran’s nuclear activities.
The Israeli army spokesman did not comment and there was no response from XT Management, the Channel 12 company cited as the owner of the Israeli ship. Officials in Iran, where a holiday is being celebrated, could not be reached for comment.
The freighter continued to its destination, according to Ronen Solomon, an intelligence analyst and head of the The Intelli Times blog, which confirmed details of the report of the attack in the Arabian Sea with people close to the subject. He identified the ship as LORI and said that a missile or mine deployed by a fleet of small military boats from Iran was most likely responsible.
Earlier this month, Iran said that Israel was probably behind an explosion that damaged an Iranian container ship in the Mediterranean, and Israel’s Environment Minister claimed that an Iranian ship deliberately dumped oil in Israeli waters. An Israeli maritime intelligence company, Windward, said later that the oil spill probably originated from the oil trade that violated Iran-Syria sanctions.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in February that Iran was responsible for an unexplained explosion on an Israeli cargo ship in the Persian Gulf. Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported last week that Israel has hit several dozen Iranian oil tankers in the past few weeks, causing cumulative damage to billions of dollars for Iran.
“This is not the beginning of a naval campaign, on the contrary, we are in the middle of one,” said Solomon.
– With the help of Golnar Motevalli and Yaacov Benmeleh
(Updates with analyst comments starting in the fourth paragraph.)