Iran’s foreign ministry on Monday rejected Washington’s claims that a drone attack targeting a tanker off the coast of India was “fired from Iran”.
A drone strike damaged a merchant ship in the Indian Ocean but caused no casualties on Saturday. The targeting of a Japanese-owned chemical tanker came amid a flurry of drone and missile attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels in the Red Sea in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Later, the Pentagon accused Iran of orchestrating the attack.
“We declare these claims as completely rejected and worthless,” said Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani when asked about the US accusations.
“Such claims are aimed at projecting, distracting public attention, and covering up for the full support of the American government for the crimes of the Zionist regime (Israel) in Gaza,” he added.
Earlier, Iran’s deputy foreign minister also dismissed US accusations saying the Huthis were acting on their own.
“The resistance (Huthis) has its own tools… and acts in accordance with its own decisions and capabilities,” said Ali Bagheri, Iran’s deputy foreign minister. “The fact that certain powers, such as the Americans and the Israelis, suffer strikes from the resistance movement… should in no way call into question the reality of the strength of the resistance in the region,” Bagheri told Mehr news agency.
Iran further slammed recent remarks by UK foreign secretary David Cameron who called Tehran a “malign influence in the region and the world” as “repetitive” and “threadbare”.
The war of words comes amidst the ongoing fight between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas which has continued since 11 weeks and has claimed over 20,000 lives.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack which came amid multiple drone and missile attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels on an important shipping lane in the Red Sea.
(With inputs from AFP)
Comments
0 comment