From the Liveblog of
Sunday, June 16, 2019
Iran hints US could be behind ‘suspicious’ tanker attacks
- See more Times of Israel on Google - add us as a Preferred Source
Iran’s parliament speaker hints that Washington could be behind the “suspicious” tanker attacks in the Gulf of Oman to pile pressure on Tehran, official news agency IRNA reports.
“The suspicious actions against the tankers… seem to complement the economic sanctions against Iran considering that (the US) has not achieved any results from them,” Ali Larijani tells lawmakers.
He backs his claim by saying there had been a precedent “during World War II, when Americans targeted their own ships near Japan to create an excuse for hostility.”
A non-belligerent state at the beginning of World War II, the US went to war after Japan’s surprise attack on the American Pearl Harbor base in Hawaii on the morning of December 7, 1941.
A Japanese-owned tanker, the Kokuka Courageous, and a Norwegian-operated one, the Front Altair, were attacked on Thursday and left ablaze as they were passing through the Gulf of Oman
Washington accused Tehran of being behind the attacks, that took place at the same time that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was in Tehran for talks aimed at defusing tensions between Iran and the United States.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif dismissed the US claim as “baseless” and said Washington had “immediately jumped to make allegations against Iran — (without) a shred of factual or circumstantial evidence.”
— AFP
The Times of Israel Community.