Foreign Minister Yair Lapid called for a sharp international reaction to Tehran’s actions. His US colleague Antony Blinken agreed to support Washington in the investigation. Meanwhile, Iran rejected the allegations. The oil tanker was attacked off the coast of Oman on Thursday. Two crew members were killed.
Blinken and Lapid had agreed to work with other partners to determine the “facts” about the attack on the tanker “MT Mercer Street” and to discuss “appropriate further steps”, the US State Department announced on Saturday. The US military had previously stated that there was “clear” evidence that the attack on the tanker was carried out with drones.
On Friday evening, Lapid demanded a response from the United Nations to the attack on “MT Mercer Street”. He wrote on Twitter that he had instructed the Israeli embassies in Washington, London and at the UN to team up with their respective contact persons for this purpose.
“Iran is not just a problem for Israel, but an exporter of terrorism, destruction and instability that harms all of us,” said Lapid. “We must never remain silent in the face of Iranian terrorism, which also affects the freedom of navigation.”
Iran, meanwhile, rejected Israel’s allegations that it was responsible for the fatal attack on the oil tanker. The allegations of “the Zionist regime” are “unfounded,” said Foreign Office spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh on Sunday at a televised press conference. Israel must stop such accusations against Iran.
The tanker “MT Mercer Street” has a Japanese owner and is operated by the company Zodiac Maritime of the Israeli entrepreneur Ejal Ofer. A Romanian and a British man were killed in the attack. According to the operator, the tanker was on its way from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates without cargo at the time of the attack. After the attack, the crew of “MT Mercer Street” made an emergency call to which, according to Washington, US marines responded. They went on board the tanker to support the crew and saw evidence of the attack there.
Initially, nobody officially confessed to the attack. The Iranian state broadcaster Al-Alam reported, however, citing “informed regional circles” that the attack was a “response to a recent Israeli attack” on a Syrian airport.
In the Gulf region there are repeated attacks on ships, which experts see as part of a shadow war between Israel and Iran. The consulting firm Dryad Global, which specializes in maritime security, said that since February there have been five attacks on ships connected to Israel. During the same period, two ships with connections to Iran were attacked.
Former Israeli brigadier general and security expert Shlomo Brom told AFP that the attack on MT Mercer Street bore parallels to an alleged drone attack on an Iranian centrifuge factory in June for which Israel was blamed. “The Iranians are imitating us and using the same techniques,” said Brom. However, neither Iran nor Israel are interested in a “major escalation”.
The attack on the tanker took place against the background of difficult talks about a revival of the international nuclear deal with Iran. The talks in Vienna, in which the USA also indirectly participates, were recently suspended, but are to be continued next Thursday after the inauguration of the new Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.
