Israel joins the accusations and links the event to Tehran’s aspirations to “destabilize the region”
November 16 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The US authorities have accused Iran of having attacked with a drone an oil tanker owned by an Israeli millionaire while it was sailing in the waters of the Gulf of Oman, an event that, they say, “further” threatens the freedom of navigation in the area.
“Upon review of available information, we are confident that Iran likely carried out this attack using an unmanned aerial vehicle, a lethal capability that it is increasingly employing directly and through its proxies throughout the Middle East and proliferating in Russia for its use in Ukraine,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement.
Thus, the person in charge of US national security has remarked that “there is no justification” for this attack, which is “the latest in a pattern of such actions and broader destabilizing activities.”
Finally, Sullivan has transferred to the affected parties the firm commitment of US President Joe Biden to “support the free flow of trade” through the waterways of the Middle East. Likewise, he thanked the United Kingdom for having been the first to raise the alarm regarding the attack on the vessel ‘Pacific Zircon’.
ISRAEL JOINS THE ACCUSATIONS
For their part, Israeli military sources have reported to the DPA agency that Jerusalem also considers that Tehran is behind the attack on the oil tanker off the coast of Oman, an act that, they say, follows the line of Iran’s destabilizing aspirations in the region.
The aforementioned source has gone a step further than the United States and has advanced that Iran would have used a Shahed-136 drone, a model that, he says, Tehran has recently been supplying to Moscow in the framework of its offensive against Ukraine, which began about nine months ago.
An oil tanker owned by an Israeli millionaire was hit late Tuesday by a drone in the Gulf of Oman, an event that resulted in material damage but no casualties, according to a British security company and sources quoted by the US newspaper ‘The Wall Street Journal’.
The attacked ship was transiting the Gulf of Oman when it was hit by an unmanned device, according to sources in the US newspaper, which point out that it could be Iranian-made, although there is no official confirmation at the moment.
The incident took place hours after the US Fifth Fleet announced the interception in the Gulf of Oman of a “fishing vessel” carrying “lethal aid” to the Houthis, including “a large quantity of explosive materials”, from of Iran, without Tehran having ruled on the matter.
The war in Yemen pits the internationally recognized government, now represented by the Presidential Leadership Council and supported by the international coalition led by Saudi Arabia, against the Houthis, backed by Iran. The Houthis control the capital, Sana’a, and parts of the north and west of the country.
The United Nations special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, is trying to bring the parties closer together to relaunch the peace process, after the truce agreed in April on the occasion of the start of Ramadan and extended several times expired in October. subsequently.
