Netanyahu accuses Iran of attack on Israeli shipowner's ship in Gulf of Oman

The merchant ship 'Helios Ray', of an Israeli shipping company, anchored for repair, on Sunday in Dubai.GIUSEPPE CACACE / AFP

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday accused Iran of the attack suffered last week by the merchant ship

Helios Ray,

registered in the Bahamas by an Israeli shipping company, in waters of the Gulf of Oman.

In statements to the Hebrew state radio, the Chief Executive pointed directly to Tehran as responsible for the explosion of magnetic mines in the hull of the ship, which have caused material damage above the waterline and have forced it to dock for repairs. in Dubai.

The Iranian government denies everything.

"It is clear that it was an Iranian operation," Netanyahu stated bluntly on Radio Kan without offering further details.

The mysterious explosion that occurred on the Israeli-owned car transporter on the night of Thursday to Friday, not far from the Iranian coastline, has triggered tension in both archenemies in the Middle East.

Israeli naval sources pointed to an attack with a missile launched from the coast or from a warship that had pierced the hull of

Helios Ray

from end to end

over the weekend

.

The explosion occurred in a busy international maritime corridor off Muscat, the capital of the Sultanate of Oman.

The Israeli Minister of Education, Yoav Galant, a former career military man and a member of the Security Cabinet, rejected that version.

In an intervention on the Ynet-TV channel, he assured that the photographs he had examined of the damage indicated that the holes located on both sides of the merchant's hull had been produced by the explosion of “magnetic mines placed at night, in an apparent operation of commandos, ”according to his statement transcribed by Reuters.

"Iran is Israel's greatest enemy," Prime Minister Netanyahu recalled in his interview with the state radio station.

"We are going to repel their aggressions and for this we are intervening throughout the region," he added.

On Sunday night, Israeli warplanes fired missiles at military positions near Damascus.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry denied Iranian involvement in the explosion.

"We strongly reject this accusation and underline that the Zionist regime [Israel] is the greatest cause of insecurity and instability in the region," said an official spokesman quoted by Efe.

Security in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of ​​Oman, according to the same source, is key for Tehran, so it will not allow Israel to "intimidate the region."

Iran had promised in November to avenge the death of scientist Mohsen Fajrizadeh, the father of its nuclear program, killed in an attack that it attributed to Israeli agents.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an NGO that has informants on the ground, specified that the attack had affected the area of ​​Al Sayeda Zainab, south of the Syrian capital, where units of the Al Quds Force are based. expeditionary of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and of the Lebanese Shiite militia of Hezbollah.

Israel's incursions into Syria have occurred in recent years with the aim of preventing Iranian forces and their allies, who have supported the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, from consolidating and rearming near its border since the beginning of the war. , which broke out almost 10 years ago in the Arab country.

With Bahamas flag

The

Helios Ray is

a vessel registered in the Bahamas and chartered by the Ray shipping company, owned by Israeli businessman Rami Ungar, according to public information available on the internet.

No member of its crew is of Israeli nationality.

In recent years there have been security incidents in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman against vessels of various nationalities in actions attributed on many occasions to Tehran, which has always denied its involvement.

The ship had set sail with unidentified cargo two weeks ago from the port of Eilat, on the Israeli coast of the Red Sea, at the bottom of the Gulf of Aqaba, bound for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, to later continue its journey in the direction to Singapore.

After the signing of the agreement to normalize relations between Israel and the Emirates, last August, maritime traffic between the two countries has intensified a commercial and strategic alliance with Iran.