Page 6 - MEOG Week 31 2021

MEOG PIPELINES & TRANSPORT MEOG

US, UK and Israel accuse

Iran of Gulf tanker attack

GULF THE US, UK and Israel have said that they a Liberian-flagged, Japanese-owned ship man-
believe Iran carried out an attack on an Israe- aged by Israeli-owned Zodiac Maritime.
li-managed petroleum product tanker off the The US Navy was escorting the tanker with
coast of Oman on July 29 that killed a Briton and the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier.
a Romanian. Speaking during a weekly meeting of his cab-
Iran earlier on August 1 denied it was inet on August 1, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali
involved in the incident. However, the previous Bennett said: “I declare unequivocally: Iran is the
day, an Iranian government Arabic-language tel- one that carried out the attack on the ship.”
evision station, Al Alam TV, quoted unnamed Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed
sources as saying that the attack was made in Khatibzadeh told a weekly news conference on
revenge for an unspecified alleged Israeli attack August 1 that the “Zionist regime [Israel] has
on an airport in Syria, an ally of Iran’s. created insecurity, terror and violence... These
“Upon review of the available information, accusations about Iran’s involvement are con-
we are confident that Iran conducted this attack, demned by Tehran”.
which killed two innocent people, using one-way “Such accusations are meant by Israel to
explosive UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles],” US divert attention from facts and are baseless,”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a state- Khatibzadeh added.
ment. He added that there was “no justification” Analysts widely suspect Iran and Israel are
for the attack. involved in an undeclared shadow war in which
“We are working with our partners to con- they carry out attacks on each other’s vessels.
sider our next steps and consulting with gov- This war appears to be escalating, with the fact
ernments inside the region and beyond on an that there were human casualties as a result of the
appropriate response, which will be forthcom- latest attack marking a possible turning point for
ing,” Blinken said. the worse. Iran has also accused Israel of mount-
The incident occurred roughly a week before ing covert operations to assassinate its nuclear
the August 5 inauguration of hardline cleric scientists and destroy Iranian nuclear develop-
Ebrahim Raisi as Iran’s next president. ment facilities.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab Zodiac Maritime is led by Israeli business-
said on August 1 that UK analysis concluded it man and shipowner Eyal Ofer.
was highly probable that Iran used one or more In July, a containership recently sold by the
drones to carry out the “unlawful and callous” Ofer family was attacked in the Indian Ocean.
attack on the tanker. In April, an Israel-owned ro-ro carrier was
“We believe this attack was deliberate, tar- attacked off Fujairah, while Israel was also
geted, and a clear violation of international law accused of a mining an Iranian ship Saviz.
by Iran,” he said. The UK was working with inter- The Wall Street Journal reported in March
national partners on a “concerted response,” he that Israel has targeted at least 12 ships bound
also stated. for Syria, most of them transporting Iranian oil,
The attacked tanker was the Mercer Street, with mines and other weapons.™

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 31 04•August•2021