Iranian Investigators Blame Israel For Blast On Containership
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The tension between Israel and Iran heightened again this week after an Iranian containership was attacked in the Mediterranean. Now Iranian investigators have stated that Israel might be behind the attack.
Ship Intentionally Targeted
An explosion hit the Shahr e Kord ship on Friday causing a fire on board the ship. No one is hurt by the explosion caused by a small explosive object. Maritime Security agencies are implicating that the ship was intentionally targeted.
“Considering the geographical location and the way the ship was targeted, one of the strong possibilities is that this terrorist operation was carried out by the Zionist regime (Israel),” said a member of the Iranian investigating team.
Representation Image – Credits: A.Savin – Wikimedia
However, Israel has refuted the charges. The Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz blamed Iran saying that the country regularly sent weapons to its proxies in the region.
“We foil arms supplies and other things relating to operational development and military capabilities by air, sea and land. And by this I am not saying whether we did or did not do this or that”, Gantz added.
An Act of Terrorism
Iran on the other hand has called it an act of sabotage that violated international laws. The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said that Iran will identify the perpetrators and take action against them.
So far the investigation team has revealed that the explosive projectiles were probably fired from an aerial vehicle to target the ship’s deck.
The state-run shipping company IRISL called it an act of terrorism and naval piracy and vouched to take legal action against the perpetrators.
This comes at a time when Iran-Israel relations are already in tatters after the Israeli containership MV Helios Ray was blasted in the Gulf of Oman. The blast put holes on both the starboard and port side of the ship. Israel had blamed Iran for this blast which they refuted.
Reference: scmp.com
Source: Maritime Shipping News