"Our assessment is that the UAV that hit Mercer Street left Iran - this is further proof that Iran is first and foremost a threat to the world and the region," Defense Minister Bnei Gantz said today (Wednesday) in a briefing with ambassadors against the attack on the ship off the coast of Oman .
At the beginning of the month, a merchant ship operated by an Israeli-owned company was attacked in the Arabian Sea.
The Mercer Street container ship is a Japanese vessel operated by the British shipping company Zodiac Martim, which sailed under the Liberian flag.
This is a company controlled by the Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer.
The incident involved two sailors killed among the ship's crew members: one with British citizenship and the other with Romanian citizenship.
"Israel has options for action and we knew how to act in the past - I do not rule out that we will have to act in the future so that Iran does not reach nuclear weapons," the defense minister stressed in a briefing to more than 60 foreign ambassadors on the security situation.
This is Gantz's third year of briefing foreign ambassadors.
Mercer Street merchant ship attacked by Iran // Photo: AP,
During the briefing, the defense minister said that "Iran has an intention to destroy Israel, and it is working to have the means to do so. In addition, it operates through its branches in Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and Gaza, uses UAVs and precision missiles, works against merchant ships. At sea and even attacks cyber around the world.
"According to Israeli estimates, the attack on Mercer Street was carried out on Iranian soil, and it must be assumed that this was done with the approval of the Supreme Leader."
Meanwhile, Gantz presented the increase in the Iranian defense budget, which more than doubled in five years from $ 22 billion to $ 49 billion (according to the real value of the real currency). Ganz said that Israel has no conflict with the Iranian people, but with the Iranian regime and that it is troubled by the fact that representatives of the international community have come to swear in Raisi, "the executioner from Tehran."
Gantz stressed: "Iran is two months away from accumulating the material needed for a nuclear bomb. We do not know if the Iranian regime is ready to reach an agreement and return to the negotiating table and the world must build" Plan B "and halt its progress now. The ultimate goal is to reach an agreement "Longer, stronger and wider." Iran's arrival at a nuclear threshold puts us on the brink of a regional and possibly global nuclear arms race. All Iranian aggression so far has been without this capability. "We in Israel have our options, we have known how to use the means at our disposal in the past, and I do not rule out that we will have to use them in the future. But Iran is first and foremost a challenge to the world that needs to unite and act."
On the subject of Lebanon, Ganz said: "Thousands of homes have missile depots in the heart of the civilian population. Iran and Hezbollah are taking advantage of the humanitarian situation in Lebanon, preventing a stable government. , And that Israel is ready to allow the assistance of the countries of the world from its territory. "
Regarding the Palestinians, the Defense Minister noted that: "The Palestinian Authority and its leadership are the representative body of the Palestinians in the region, and we are working to strengthen the PA in Judea and Samaria: we approve construction, we have expanded employment permits and in the long run we need to promote significant infrastructure projects."
In Gaza, Hamas' conduct harms the population.
"All that Israel needs to enable Gaza to develop and reach a long-term settlement is to return the boys home, and a commitment to complete peace in the south of the country."