The US, UK and Israel are all certain Iran is behind the attack on the Mercer Street ship and plan to work on a joint response to it.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab all made statements that Iran was behind Friday’s deadly bombing off the coast of Oman, hours after Iran denied involvement, a move that the prime minister called “cowardly.”
“I determine, with absolute certainty: Iran carried out the attack against the ship,” Bennett stated at the start of a cabinet meeting. “The intelligence evidence for this exists, and we expect the international community will make it clear to the Iranian regime that they have made a serious mistake.
“In any case, we know how to send a message to Iran in our own way. Iran’s thuggishness endangers not only Israel, but also harms global interests, namely freedom of navigation and international trade.”
Bennett said Iran used unmanned aircraft (UAVs) to attack the ship, which it viewed as an Israeli target. Mercer Street is a Liberian-flagged, Japanese-owned vessel managed by Israeli-owned Zodiac Maritime.
Rather than striking Israelis, the Iranian attack killed the captain, who was a Romanian citizen, and a British national. They were the first casualties in the ongoing maritime violence between Iran and Israel. Bennett sent condolences to the UK and Romania.
Israel has made a concerted push for an international response to the attack, one of a series by Iran on vessels partially owned by Israelis in recent years. Foreign Minister Yair Lapid spoke to Blinken and Raab over the weekend, emphasizing that Iran’s maritime attacks are a global threat.
Blinken condemned the attack on Sunday, saying that the US is “confident that Iran conducted this attack, which killed two innocent people, using one-way explosive drones or UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), a lethal capability it is increasingly employing throughout the region.
“There is no justification for this attack, which follows a pattern of attacks and other belligerent behavior. We are working with our partners to consider our next steps, and consulting with governments inside the region and beyond on an appropriate response, which will be forthcoming.”
UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said: “We believe this attack was deliberate, targeted, and a clear violation of international law by Iran. UK assessments have concluded that it is highly likely that Iran attacked the MV Mercer Street in international waters off Oman on 29 July using one or more Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.”
The UK is working on a concerted response to the attack with international partners, the foreign secretary stated.
Raab called on Iran to “end such attacks, and vessels must be allowed to navigate freely in accordance with international law.”
IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kohavi spoke with his British counterpart, General Sir Nick Carter, and the two discussed the recent events in the area and the common challenges facing the two countries, according to a statement released by the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.
Blinken and Raab’s warnings of a response come as the US seeks to return to indirect negotiations with Iran to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal, to which the UK is a party. Iran has refused to talk for the past six weeks, saying that they are waiting for president-elect Ebrahim Raisi to enter office on Thursday. Blinken has said that the US will not continue waiting indefinitely.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry denied its country’s involvement in the deadly attack on Sunday.
“The Zionist regime (Israel) has created insecurity, terror and violence... these accusations about Iran’s involvement are condemned by Tehran,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told a weekly news conference.
Lapid expressed satisfaction at the American and British statements, and said that “the threat from the terror regime in Iran will only grow after ‘the hangman of Tehran’ Raisi takes power. The whole world must put up a fortified wall, diplomatically and militarily, against Iran.”
Israel began to push for a UN Security Council condemnation against Tehran for Friday’s attack.
According to a diplomatic source, Israel is “working with other countries, especially Britain and the United States, and more to advance the Security Council’s discussion on this serious terrorist act by Iran that joins its other actions that call into question and endanger all maritime security and free trade.”
Israel’s Ambassador to the United States and the UN Gilad Erdan intends to send an official letter of complaint to the UNSC to request a meeting and the issuance of a condemnation.
According to a senior Israeli official, the attack shows “the masks are coming off and no one can pretend they don’t know the character of the Iranian regime.”
Israeli-owned Zodiac Maritime, which manages the Mercer Street, said on Friday that the vessel was sailing under the control of its crew and own power to a safe location with a US naval escort. That escort was the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, US Central Command said in a statement.
“US Navy explosives experts are aboard to ensure there is no additional danger to the crew, and are prepared to support an investigation into the attack,” said Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the Middle East and Central Asia.
IAl Alam TV, the Iranian government’s Arabic-language television network, cited unnamed sources as saying the attack on the ship came in response to a suspected, unspecified Israeli attack on Dabaa airport in Syria.
Iran and Israel have traded accusations of attacking each other’s vessels in recent months.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), which provides maritime security information, said the vessel was about 280 km. northeast of the Omani port of Duqm when it was attacked.
According to Refinitiv ship tracking, the medium-size tanker was headed for Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
Anna Ahronheim and Reuters contributed to this report.