A top Israeli official said his country is ready to strike Iran in retaliation for a recent attack on an oil tanker belonging to an Israeli firm.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz replied, “Yes,” when asked by the Israeli news site Ynet News on Thursday whether the Israeli Defense Forces was ready to take military action against Iran.
“Iran seeks to pose a multi-front challenge to Israel, as such is building up its forces in Lebanon and Gaza, deploying militias in Syria and Iraq, and maintaining its supporters in Yemen. Iran is a global and regional problem and an Israeli challenge,” he added. He also said Iran is a global threat, not just a threat to Israel.
A so-called “suicide” drone struck the bridge of the oil tanker the Mercer Street in the north Arabian Sea last week, killing the captain and one crew member — a British national and Romanian national. Israel, the United States, and the United Kingdom claimed Iran carried out the attack, a charge Tehran denies.
On Friday, U.S. Central Command revealed evidence pointing to the conclusion that Iran was behind the attack, as shrapnel found on the ship was “nearly identical” to shrapnel found from other known Iranian attack drones. The evidence prompted the G-7 leaders to condemn the strike, saying, “all evidence clearly points to Iran.”
When reached for comment, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said, “We’ve seen Defense Minister Gantz’s comments.” The representative also told the Washington Examiner that the U.S. strongly condemns the attack on the Mercer Street and supports the U.K.’s call for a U.N. Defense Council condemnation of the action.
The spokesperson said the U.S. takes the safety of Israel and other allies “very seriously” and that the U.S. is “working closely with our allies and partners to consider our next steps and consulting with governments inside the region and beyond on an appropriate response.”
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh described the allegation Iran carried out the attack as “baseless.”
“It’s not the first time that the Zionist regime occupying Jerusalem has made such empty accusations against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Wherever this regime has gone, it has taken instability, terror, and violence with it,” Khatibzadeh responded.
“Whoever sows the wind shall reap the whirlwind,” he warned.
The attack on the Mercer Street is the latest episode in a long-running “shadow war” at sea between Israel and Iran, part of Israel’s recent strategy christened the “Campaign Between Wars,” in which it seeks to disrupt Iranian buildup through “threat-neutralizing endeavors below the threshold of war,” according to retired Israeli Defense Forces chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot.
After U.S. sanctions against the Iranian Central Bank in 2018 restricted the ability of Tehran to finance its Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and proxy militia, Hezbollah, the Iranians have turned to smuggling oil into Syria as an alternative way of raising funds, according to analyst Matthew Levitt, writing for the Washington Institute. This extensive smuggling operation relies on an “illicit shipping network,” directed by Hezbollah and the IRGC. Prior to his death in early 2020, Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani was the main director of this network.
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Since 2018, Israel has carried out dozens of attacks on Iranian vessels in the Red Sea and eastern Mediterranean, costing the Iranian regime billions of dollars, analyst Farzin Nadimi of the Washington Institute reported. Iran has responded in kind, often with “tit-for-tat” retaliation against Israeli vessels.
However, these attacks were all low-level, resulting in zero fatalities and not causing significant damage to targeted ships.
If Iran is proven to be behind the attack on the Mercer Street, it would be the first deadly attack in the Israeli-Iranian shadow naval war of the past few years, a major escalation.
Credit: Yahoo News