Jerusalem: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has blamed Iran for a blast aboard an Israeli-owned ship in the Gulf of Oman last week but sidestepped a question on whether Israel would retaliate.
The MV Helios Ray, a vehicle-carrier ship, was hit on Friday morning as it was sailing out of the Middle East on its way to Singapore. A US official said the blast above the water line had ripped holes in both sides of its hull.
The crew was unharmed in the blast, and the ship docked at Dubai’s port for repairs and inspection on Sunday.
It remains unclear what caused the blast. The Helios Ray had discharged cars at various ports in the Persian Gulf before the explosion forced it to reverse course.
“This was indeed an operation by Iran. That is clear,” Netanyahu told Kan radio on Monday, Israel time.
Asked if Israel would retaliate, he repeated previous statements about his determination to prevent Iran from developing nuclear capacity and added:“Iran is the greatest enemy of Israel, I am determined to halt it. We are hitting it in the entire region.”
Iran responded to Netanyahu’s statement saying it “strongly rejected” the claim that it was behind the attack. In a press briefing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said Netanyahu was “suffering from an obsession with Iran” and described his charges as “fear-mongering”.
Read the article by Dan William (Reuters, AP) in The Sydney Morning Herald.