Iran, allies could be behind Israeli ship blast, Iranian newspaper
Tehran, Iran - The ‘resistance axis’ of Tehran and its regional allies may have been behind an explosion that hit an Israeliowned ‘spy’ vessel four days ago, an ultraconservative Iranian newspaper said on 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 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,’
MV Helios Ray
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 in diameter’.
It was ‘not yet clear’ if the damage was caused by missiles or mines attached to the ship, Ungar added.