Iran missile hit an Israeli-owned ship in the Arabian Sea, television says

Photographer: Lior Mizrahi / Getty Images

An Iranian missile attacked an Israeli ship sailing from Tanzania to India, said Israeli Channel 12, without saying where it got the information from or how Iran was involved.

It is the fourth time in about a month that bitter enemies have exchanged allegations of sea attacks and tensions erupted as Israel opposes U.S. President Joe Biden’s efforts to rejoin the 2015 agreement limiting Iran’s nuclear activities.

The Israeli army spokesman made no comment and there was no response from XT Management, the Channel 12 company cited as the owner of the Israeli ship. Officials in Iran, where a holiday is being held, could not be reached.

The cargo ship continued to its destination, according to Ronen Solomon, intelligence analyst and head of the The Intelli Times blog, which confirmed the details of the reported attack in the Arabian Sea with people close to the issue. He identified the ship as the LORI and said it was most likely a missile or mine deployed by one of the fleets of small Iranian military ships.

Earlier this month, Iran said Israel was probably behind an explosion that damaged an Iranian container ship in the Mediterranean, and the Israeli environment minister alleged that an Iranian ship deliberately spilled oil. in Israeli waters. An Israeli maritime intelligence company, Windward, later said the oil spill probably originated from the oil trade that curbed sanctions between Iran and Syria.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in February said Iran was responsible for an unexplained explosion on an Israeli-owned cargo ship in the Persian Gulf. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported last week that Israel has hit several dozen Iranian tankers in recent weeks, causing accumulated billions of dollars in damage to Iran.

“It’s not the start of a naval campaign, but we’re in the middle of one,” Solomon said.

– With the assistance of Golnar Motevalli and Yaacov Benmeleh

(Updates with analyst comments from the fourth paragraph.)