DUBAI, UAE – An Iranian cargo ship believed to be a base for the paramilitary revolutionary guard and anchored for years in the Red Sea in front of Yemen has been attacked, state television acknowledged on Wednesday. iraniana.
The recognition of state television, which quotes foreign media, marks the first Iranian comment on the mysterious incident involving Tuesday the MV Saviz, suspected of having been carried out by Israel. The attack took place when Iran and world powers sat in Vienna for the first talks on whether the U.S. could rejoin Tehran’s nuclear deal, showing that the challenges ahead lie not only in these negotiations.
The ship’s long presence in the region, repeatedly criticized by Saudi Arabia, has come as Western and United Nations experts say Iran has provided weapons and support to Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the midst of the Yemeni war. country. Iran refuses to arm Houthis, although components found in rebel armaments are linked to Tehran.
Earlier, Iran described the Saviz as aiding in “anti-piracy” efforts in the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a crucial suffocation point for international shipping.
In the state television statement, an anchor quoted a story from the New York Times, who quoted an anonymous U.S. official who told the newspaper that Israel reported to the United States that it carried out an attack Tuesday morning against the ship. Israeli officials declined to comment on the incident when they reached The Associated Press, as did the owner of the Saviz.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday introduced Iran in a speech to his Likud party after it was asked to form a government after the country’s recent elections.
“We must not return to the dangerous nuclear deal with Iran, because a nuclear Iran is an existential threat to the state of Israel and a major threat to the security of the entire world,” Netanyahu said.
The Iranian semi-official agency Tasnim, believed to be close to the Guard, denounced the attack on Tuesday afternoon, saying it had exploded explosives planted in the Saviz hull. He blamed no one for the attack and said Iranian officials would likely offer more information in the coming days.
In a statement, the U.S. Army Central Command only said it was “aware of the media reporting a Saviz-related incident in the Red Sea.”
“We can confirm that there was no U.S. force involved in the incident,” the command said. “We have no additional information to provide.”
According to ship tracking data, the Saviz, owned by the state-linked maritime lines of the Islamic Republic of Iran, reached the Red Sea in late 2016. In later years, it has moved away from the Dahlak archipelago, a chain of islands off the coast of Eritrea’s nearby African nation in the Red Sea. It probably received supply replenishments and changed crews passing through Iranian ships passing by the waterway.
Saudi Army intelligence material previously obtained by the AP showed men on the ship dressed in camouflage, military-style suits, as well as small boats capable of transporting goods off the Yemeni coast. This informational material also included images showing several antennas on the ship that the Saudi government described as unusual for a commercial cargo ship, suggesting that it was conducting electronic surveillance. Other images showed the ship had mounts for .50 caliber machine guns.
The Washington Middle East Policy Institute has called the Saviz the “Iranian mother ship” in the region, similar to its description as a base for gathering information and armory for the Guard. The institute’s policy documents do not explain how they came to this conclusion, although their analysts routinely have access to Israeli and Gulf military sources.
Saviz had been under international sanctions until Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which saw Tehran receive economic relief in exchange for limiting uranium enrichment. Subsequently, the Trump administration renewed U.S. sanctions on Saviz as part of its decision to unilaterally withdraw from the agreement.
In June 2019, Saudi Arabia flew a critically ill Iranian out of Saviz after Tehran made a request for assistance through the United Nations.
Amid widespread tensions between the United States and Iran, a series of mysterious explosions have targeted ships in the region, including some that the U.S. Navy blamed on Iran.. Among the recently damaged ships was an Israeli-owned vehicle carrier in an attack that Netanyahu blamed on Iran. Another was an Iranian cargo ship in the Mediterranean Sea.
Iran has also blamed Israel for a recent series of attacks, including a mysterious explosion in July that destroyed an advanced centrifuge assembly plant. at its Natanz nuclear facility. Another is the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in November, a top Iranian scientist who founded the Islamic Republic ‘s military nuclear program two decades ago.
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