https://www.haaretz.com –Haaretz
The MV Saviz, last week.Credit: Planet Labs Inc./AP
An Israeli-owned ship was attacked near Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, the Lebanese Al Mayadeen news channel reported on Tuesday.
According to the report, the ship is owned by an Israeli firm called PCC. Israel has yet to comment on the report.
Israeli security officials have expressed concern over a recent series of reports attributing a number of attacks on Iranian targets to Israel. Some have expressed suspicion that there are political officials who want to exploit tensions with Iran for personal needs and competition for prestige among different security agencies.
The most recent reports, which quoted anonymous Israeli and U.S. officials as saying that Israel was behind an incident at Iran’s uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, have made some officials worried that the problem could lead to an unwanted increase in security tensions.
On Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif blamed Israel for the explosion at the facility, and said “the Zionists want to take revenge because of our progress in the way to lift sanctions. They have publicly said that they will not allow this. But we will take our revenge from the Zionists,” according to Iranian state TV.
Israel and Iran have been engaged in a long-running covert war.
Last week, an Iranian cargo ship, the MV Saviz, believed to be a base for the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and anchored for years in the Red Sea off Yemen has been attacked.
A U.S. official said that Israel notified the United States that it had struck an Iranian vessel, calling it “a retaliatory” attack for earlier Iranian strikes on Israeli vessels, The New York Times reported.
The attack, attributed to Israel by the New York Times, came after an Iranian missile hit an Israeli-owned cargo ship last month in the Arabian Sea as the ship was making its way from Tanzania to India when the missile hit.