TEHRAN, Feb 28, 2021 (AFP) – The “resistance axis” of Tehran and its
regional allies may have been behind an explosion that hit an Israeli-owned
“spy” vessel four days ago, an ultraconservative Iranian newspaper said
Sunday.
The MV Helios Ray, a vehicle carrier, was travelling from the Saudi port
of Dammam to Singapore when the blast occurred on Thursday, according to the
London-based Dryad Global maritime security group.
Citing unnamed “military experts,” Kayhan, Iran’s leading
ultraconservative daily, wrote in a front-page report that “the targeted ship
in the Gulf of Oman is a military ship belonging to the Israeli army”.
It was “gathering information about the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman”
when it was targeted, the newspaper said.
“This spy ship, although it was sailing secretly, may have fallen into the
ambush of one of the branches of the resistance axis,” it added, without
offering further details.
The term “resistance axis” usually refers to the Islamic republic and its
allied forces in the region.
Israel’s defence minister Benny Gantz said on Saturday that the Jewish
state’s “initial assessment” is that Iran is responsible for the explosion
aboard the vessel.
“This… takes into account the proximity (with Iran) and the context” in
which the blast occurred, he added.
“This is what I believe.”
Rami Ungar, an Israeli businessman who owns the Helios Ray, told Israeli
state television Kan on Friday that the explosion caused “two holes about a
metre and a half (five feet) in diameter”. It was “not yet clear” if the
damage was caused by missiles or mines attached to the ship, Ungar added.
He said that the explosion did not cause any casualties among the crew or
damage to the engine.
Israel has long accused arch-foe Iran of trying to acquire nuclear
weapons, a charge always denied by Tehran.
Iran blamed the November 27 assassination outside Tehran of its top
nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh on the Jewish state.
“The Zionist regime’s attacks and crimes in the region, which have been
going on publicly for some time, seem to have finally made it a legitimate
target,” Kayhan said.
The US and Saudi Arabia in mid-2019 alleged Iran used limpet mines to blow
holes in Gulf-area ships, and then US president Donald Trump came close to
ordering an attack on Iran in retaliation. Tehran strongly denied those
allegations.