Tension in Red Sea: Israel attacks Iranian ship at start of Washington-Tehran dialogue

PARIS.– In an apparent diplomatic sabotage of the nuclear negotiations underway between the United States and Iran in Vienna, Israel attacked an Iranian intelligence ship anchored in the Red Sea on Tuesday.

Israel had anticipated in Washington the same day its intention to attack the cargo ship, which would be under the orders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to statements by a US official to the newspaper. The New York Times.

A spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry confirmed on Wednesday that the Saviz was slightly damaged in the Red Sea, off Djibouti, around 6 a.m. Tuesday due to an explosion, adding that they were investigating the causes. .

“The civilian vessel Saviz was stationed in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden region with the aim of preserving maritime security and preventing piracy,” the spokesperson said. “This ship functions practically as a logistics station for Iran in the Red Sea, so all its specifications and mission were announced at the time.”added.

According to the Iranian ministry, the attack caused no casualties.

The American officer – who spoke with The New York Times anonymously – claimed that Israel called the bombing of “reprisals” for previous Iranian bombings against Israeli ships. Asked about the attacks, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said on his country’s television that he would not discuss “any of the operations associated” with his country.

“The State of Israel must continue to defend itself,” Gantz said. “Whenever we encounter a challenge or an operational need, we will act. We are in an essentially defensive situation. But this defense alone is not enough and we must conduct offensive operations accordingly. And we will achieve them as best we can, ”he concluded.

According to media reports in Saudi Arabia, another of Iran’s great regional enemies, the attack was carried out by “Israeli commandos”.

The incident arises, in fact, after two recent attacks on Israeli ships present in the region and reports of dozens of previous attacks launched alternately by Israel and Iran against their respective ships, both in the Mediterranean and in the Persian Gulf.

Tension between the two countries peaked last year with the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, an Iranian scientist considered to be his country’s atomic bomb guru. Then Tehran accused Israel of the crime, with the complicity of then President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia. A few months later, it was General Qassem Soleimani’s turn, a charismatic and popular figure in Iran., who had just taken over the leadership of the Quds Force, the elite unit of the Revolutionary Guards.

This time, the timing of the attack suggests that it was an operation aimed at sabotaging the negotiations which began the day before yesterday in Vienna with the aim of reviving the agreement on the nuclear activity of the ‘Iran. Signed in 2015 between Iran, United States, Germany, France, United Kingdom, China and Russia, the so-called Common Global Plan of Action (Jcpoa), was abandoned by Trump in 2018.

“Israel seems to be stepping up its attacks on Iran to weaken diplomacy,” said Mohamed Ali Shabani, editor-in-chief of Amwaj.media.

“The situation is paradoxical for Tehran: if he answers, he will be found guilty. If he does not respond, it is an invitation to further attacks. The only way out: the declarations of condemnation of the other signatories of the treaty in Vienna, ”he analyzes.

On the same Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, fiercely opposed to the Iran nuclear deal, warned that your country will defend itself against the threat posed by the Ayatollah regime.

“We cannot support this dangerous nuclear plan. Because a nuclear Iran is an existential threat to us and a great threat to the security of the world, ”he told a group of MPs from his party, the Likud. And he insisted: “We must act against this fanatical Iranian regime which threatens to wipe us off the face of the Earth.”

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