Israel threatens Iran with military strike following a drone attack on its tanker

Iran has irked every inch of Israel with its recent involvement in various incidents concerning the two countries. One of the recent ones seems to be where the Iranian forces attacked Israeli oil tanker off the coast of Oman igniting a diplomatic battle between the nations.

Even though Iran has not confirmed its involvement in the drone attack, the United States among other countries blamed it for the incident. Following the attack, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz had threatened Iran with military strike. On Thursday, the minister said, “We are at a point where we need to take military action against Iran. The world needs to take action against Iran now."

The tanker was directed to an Isreali billionaire and had crew members on board. Two of them--a British national and a Romanian citizen-- were killed in the drone attack. Even after being proved by various countries, Iran has stuck to its stand of say8ng that it had nothing to do with the fatal attack.

There is all the more reason to doubt Iran because this is not the first time that the country has engaged in attacking oil tankers in the region. Since 2019, Iranian forces have been accused of attacking a number of oil tankers after continued tensions with the West. It was also one of its ways to fight back on the sanctions imposed by the United States former president Donald Trump.

There were also incidents where the Iranian oil tankers were attacked but countries came forward to take the responsibility. It was after Trump withdrew from the 2015 Nuclear deal between the two nations.

After the threat of the Israeli minister, the spokesperson of the  Iranian foreign ministry Saeed Khatibzadeh  took to twitter to call out the inability of international law to act even after an open military action called out by Israel. He said, “We state this clearly: ANY foolish act against Iran will be met with a DECISIVE response. Don't test us."

He also targeted the western countries saying that Israel is able to show this courage only because of the ‘blind’ support of the west.

The timing of the warning that Israeli diplomat gave was also noticeable. It came only a few minutes after the swearing in ceremony of Iran’s new president Ebrahum Raisi. Iran was also pulled out for its incapability to restore the nuclear deal even after repeated meetings.

The US clearly stated earlier that there is not much time left with Iran to save the 2015 agreement.

As for the new president, Iran has scored itself a hardliner, who belong to the most conservative class of the country. During the swearing in ceremony, Raisi once again called the sanctions imposed by the US government as illegal and asked them to lift it as soon as possible. "All illegal U.S. sanctions against the Iranian nation must be lifted,” were the exact words of the new leader. 

Source Link:https://www.businessinsider.in/politics/world/news/israels-defense-minister-threatens-iran-with-military-strike-after-deadly-drone-attack/articleshow/85086522.cms