Iran threatens new ‘confrontation’ in Gulf

This combination of file pictures created on July 22, 2019, shows Iranian soldiers taking part in the "National Persian Gulf day" in the Strait of Hormuz, on April 30, 2019 (up) and the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer (LHD 4) receiving a vertical replenishment-at-sea in the Arabian Sea on July 14, 2019. (US Navy photo via AFP)
Updated 25 July 2019
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Iran threatens new ‘confrontation’ in Gulf

  • If we can’t export oil no one can, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps chief vows
  • The maritime crisis in the Gulf began when IRCG forces boarded a British tanker last week and diverted it to an Iranian port

JEDDAH: Tehran on Wednesday threatened a “dangerous confrontation” in the Strait of Hormuz amid escalating tension over Iranian state piracy in the Arabian Gulf.

All countries should be able to export their oil through the strait or else no one could, said  Hossein Dehghan, a commander of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and military adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Tehran would not negotiate with the US under any circumstances and if Washington decided to go to war then all American bases in the region would be targeted, Dehghan said.

He accused Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, of becoming a US center to strike Iran’s national security.

The maritime crisis in the Gulf began when IRCG forces boarded a British tanker last week and diverted it to an Iranian port, in retaliation for the British seizure in the Mediterranean of an Iranian tanker carrying oil to Syria in breach of EU sanctions.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani hinted on Wednesday that the two vessels could be swapped. “We don’t want tensions with some European countries,” Rouhani said.

BACKGROUND

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and top French diplomatic adviser Emmanuel Bonne have visited Tehran in the past month.

If such countries were to “cease the incorrect acts that they have done, including that of Gibraltar, Iran’s response would be appropriate.”

Rouhani also said Iran would be open to talks should there be a “cease-fire” in US economic sanctions that are crippling the Iranian economy.

“In this regard some countries are intermediaries, though they themselves say they are not mediators and are just expressing their own views,” he said. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and top French diplomatic adviser Emmanuel Bonne have visited Tehran in the past month.

Meanwhile, the Israeli spy agency Shin Bet said security forces had uncovered Iranian intelligence efforts to recruit Israeli Arabs and Palestinians.

“The network was based in Syria under Iranian guidance and was led by a Syrian operative nicknamed Abu Jihad,” it said. 

“It attempted to recruit people via fictitious Facebook profiles and messaging apps.”

The recruits were asked to gather data on sites such as military bases and police stations with a view to providing Iran with potential Israeli targets. Most refused to cooperate, Shin Bet said.


Video shows armed men beating a Palestinian in West Bank

Updated 53 min 27 sec ago
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Video shows armed men beating a Palestinian in West Bank

  • The previous incident was in September and cost the business more than $600,000 as offices and facilities were damaged, he said

TEL AVIV: Dozens of masked men armed with sticks beat and injured a Palestinian in the Israeli-occupied West Bank when they attacked a plant nursery, according to people who saw the attack and video footage obtained by The Associated Press.
Video filmed by security cameras shows men dressed mostly in black, faces covered, with several hitting and kicking a man on the ground.
Two witnesses who are members of the family that owns the facility said Israeli settlers beat 67-year-old Basim Saleh Yassin as he was trying to flee the German-Palestinian-run nursery in the northern West Bank village of Deir Sharaf. Both spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

BACKGROUND

The attack is the latest in rising Israeli settler violence in the West Bank, where assaults increased during the Palestinian olive harvest in October and have continued.

Workers fled when they saw the settlers coming on Thursday but Yassin is deaf and couldn’t hear the warnings to leave, one family member said.
The witnesses said Yassin was in the hospital with broken bones in his hand and other injuries to his face, chest and back. Four cars at the nursery were burned.
The attack is the latest in rising Israeli settler violence in the West Bank, where assaults increased during the Palestinian olive harvest in October and have continued. 
Israeli authorities have done little beyond issuing occasional condemnations of the violence.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the perpetrators “a handful of extremists” and urged law enforcement to pursue them for “the attempt to take the law into their own hands.” 
But rights groups and Palestinians say the problem is far greater than a few bad actors, and attacks have become a daily phenomenon across the territory.
Israel’s army said it dispatched soldiers to the Shavei Shomron junction — close to the area of Thursday’s attack — following reports of dozens of masked Israelis vandalizing property. 
The army said it apprehended three suspects who were taken to police for questioning. It said security forces condemn violence of any kind.
According to one of the family members who own the nursery, it was the third time in a year that the facility was attacked. 
The previous incident was in September and cost the business more than $600,000 as offices and facilities were damaged, he said.
In the video of Thursday’s attack, Yassin runs from a group of masked people before falling to the ground.
One man kicks him and another hits him twice with what appears to be a stick. Yassin stays on his knees as he’s struck again and then places his hands on the ground. 
As the men are leaving, one kicks him in the head while others strike him again until he’s seen lying on the pavement.