Iran Says Israel Behind Naval Strike in Mediterranean
Iranian investigators on Saturday blamed Israel for attacking a container ship cruising the Mediterranean Sea, causing extensive damage but no casualties on board. “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,” accused an Iranian official after the incident, announced on Friday. Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz addressed the issue Saturday evening, saying Tehran regularly tries to send weapons to its proxies in the region and that Israel consistently thwarts these attempts. “And by this I am not saying whether we did or did not do this or that,” Gantz added. The strike in the Mediterranean comes two weeks after two suspected missiles hit an Israeli-owned cargo vessel in the Gulf of Oman. According to Jerusalem leadership, the MV Helios Ray was targeted by Iran, a charge the Islamic Republic has denied.