Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The Iranian shipping company on Friday (12/3/2021) said a container ship belonging to them was damaged in an attack in the Mediterranean Sea.
Reported by Al Jazeera, the ship, named Shahre Kord, suffered minor damage in an incident on Wednesday (10/3/2021) by an explosive object which caused a small fire, but no one on board was injured, spokesman Ali Ghiasian said, according to government media.
“The terrorist act constitutes naval piracy, and contravenes international law on the security of commercial shipping, and legal action will be taken to identify the culprit through relevant international agencies,” Ghiasian said.
The ship was heading to Europe when the attack took place and will return to its destination after repairs are complete, he added.
Two maritime security sources said early indications were that the Iranian container ship was deliberately targeted by an unknown source.
The incident occurred 2 weeks after the Israeli ship, the MV Helios Ray, was hit by an explosion in the Gulf of Oman.
The cause was not immediately clear, although a US defense official said the blast left holes in both sides of the hull.
Israel accuses Iran of being behind the blast, a charge it denies.
Meanwhile the Israeli Office did not comment when asked if Israel was involved in the Shahre Kord incident reported by Iran.
A third maritime security source told Reuters news agency that three other Iranian ships had been damaged in recent weeks by unknown reasons while sailing through the red sea.
Relations between Iran and Israel itself are heating up. Earlier the Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), General Aviv Kochavi said on an occasion that he had ordered his troops to prepare for an imminent armed contact with Iran.
“I have instructed the IDF to prepare several operational plans to complement some of the existing plans.” Light of Aviv.
This got a reply from Tehran. Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami said the country would retaliate if attacked. The Tehran-run Fars News Agency reported that Hatami called Israeli leaders “dogs” and the country was “too small to show hostility towards the Islamic Republic”.
“The Zionist regime knows and if it doesn’t, they should know that if it makes a mistake, the Islamic Republic will destroy Tel Aviv and Haifa,” said Hatami.
“I advise them not to make this mistake, even with words.”
Israel is Iran’s traditional enemy in every way. Even recently, Prime Minister (PM) Israel Benjamin Netanyahu publicly reminded the US President, who is a major ally of Israel, to stay away from Iran and cancel the nuclear talks previously frozen by President Donald Trump.
In addition, Israel has previously launched attacks on nuclear facilities in Syria and Iraq. The country has also been accused of carrying out a program to assassinate top nuclear researcher Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in November.
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