CAIRO (Reuters) – Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized a cargo ship linked to Israel in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported, days after Tehran warned of a possible closure of the area to maritime traffic.
According to this agency, a guards helicopter took the MSC Aries, a Portuguese-flagged boat, into Iranian waters.
Maritime security agencies previously reported that a ship was boarded and seized by “regional authorities” in the Strait of Hormuz, between the United Arab Emirates and Iran.
Tehran is engaging in piracy and should be punished for it, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
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“Ayatollah Khamenei’s regime is a criminal regime that supports Hamas’ crimes and is currently carrying out a piracy operation in violation of international law,” he said. “I call on the European Union and the free world to immediately declare the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization and sanction Iran now.”
The Aries is leased by international shipping company MSC to Gortal Shipping, a subsidiary of Zodiac Maritime, Zodiac said in a statement, adding that MSC was responsible for all activities of the vessel. Zodiac is partly owned by Israeli businessman Eyal Ofer.
This incident comes amid growing regional tensions since the start of the Israeli campaign in Gaza in October. Israel and its American ally have repeatedly clashed with Iranian-backed groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
BIDEN WARNING
Iran threatened to retaliate for suspected Israeli airstrikes on its consulate in the Syrian capital Damascus on April 1; The attack resulted in the death of seven Revolutionary Guard officers, including two senior commanders.
US President Joe Biden said on Friday he expected Iran to attack Israel, and urged Tehran not to do so.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said “Iran will face consequences if it chooses to further escalate the situation,” in response to reports of the MSC Aries seizure.
On Tuesday, Revolutionary Guard naval chief Alireza Tangsiri threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz if necessary.
He said Iran views Israel’s presence in the UAE, which established diplomatic ties with the Jewish state in 2020 as part of the US-brokered “Abraham Accords”, as a threat. .
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi group has been disrupting global trade with its attacks on ships in the Red Sea for months, saying it is targeting vessels linked to Israel in retaliation for the conflict in Gaza.
The United States and Britain carried out strikes against Houthi targets in response to the attacks on the ships.
(Reporting Enas Alashray and Muhammad Al Gebaly in Cairo, Maha El Dahan and Federico Maccioni in Dubai and Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem; French version Elizabeth Pineau)
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