TEHRAN: Iran on Saturday rejected Western allegations its drones were used in a deadly tanker attack, while accusing Israel of concocting the "scenario" in a bid to undermine the Islamic republic.
The MT Mercer Street, an oil products tanker operated by Israeli-controlled Zodiac maritime, was struck last week off Oman's coast, killing two crew members -- a Briton and a Romanian.
The incident on July 29 upped the stakes in what analysts have called a "shadow war" that has seen a spate of attacks on vessels linked to Iran and Israel.
G7 foreign ministers on Friday pointed the finger of blame for the latest attack at Iran, as the US military released the findings of an investigation alleging the drones were made in the Islamic republic.
Iran dismissed the allegations.
"We strongly condemn the baseless statement by the foreign ministers of the G7 and the European Union's high representative for foreign affairs in which they have directed baseless accusations at the Islamic Republic of Iran," foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said.
The tanker attack and the accusations against Iran were a "scenario" concocted with "notable" timing, he said, as they came days before Iran's new ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi took the oath of office.
Raisi was inaugurated on August 3 by Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and sworn in by parliament two days later, taking over from moderate president Hassan Rouhani.
"For experts and those who know the history of this region, it is not a new thing that the Zionist regime (Israel) would design such conspiracies," Khatibzadeh said.
Citing the results of a probe, the US Central Command said on Friday that remnants from one of three explosives-laden drones that targeted the Mercer Street indicated it was produced in Iran.
"This was a deliberate and targeted attack, and a clear violation of international law... There is no justification for this attack," the foreign ministers of the world's seven most developed nations (G7) said in a statement.
Iran's military spokesman denied the US allegations.
"The Americans say they have found parts of Iran's drones in the water, and this is their evidence. But what laboratory has determined (the drones) belong to Iran?," Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi was quoted by IRNA news agency as saying.
"This is the Americans' method, to weave stories and use it to accuse Iran... this is the method they have chosen to pressure Iran," he added.
Shekarchi also said the accusations were a "psychological operation" launched against Iran by its enemies.
"If we are supposed to confront our enemies, like what we did at Ain al-Assad, we would clearly announce it," he noted, referring to an Iraqi military base housing American troops.
The base was hit by a barrage of Iranian missiles in January 2020 to avenge the assassination of the Revolutionary Guards' top commander Qasem Soleimani, killed in an American air strike days before in Baghdad.
"Creating fake evidence is not very difficult (and) since the Zionists have a record of creating fake evidence, causing an explosion on a ship is not very difficult," Shekarchi added.
On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said his government was "working on enlisting the world" in response to the attack but warned "we also know how to act alone".
Iran on Thursday warned its arch-foe not to take military action against it.
"We state this clearly: ANY foolish act against Iran will be met with a DECISIVE response," Khatibzadeh said.
"Don't test us," added the foreign ministry spokesman.
There have been several reported attacks on Israeli and Iranian ships in recent months that the two have blamed each for.
Iran has also accused Israel of sabotaging its nuclear sites and killing a number of its scientists.
Iran rejects G7 and US allegations over drone attack on ship
https://arab.news/n8mhk
Iran rejects G7 and US allegations over drone attack on ship
Israel’s ‘deliberate intention of preventing births among Palestinians’ meets ‘legal criteria of Genocide Convention’: Reports
- Births in Gaza fell by 41% during conflict as maternal deaths, miscarriages surged
- ‘The destruction of maternal care in Gaza reflects the deliberate infliction of conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinian people, in whole or in part’
LONDON: Births in Gaza fell by 41 percent due to Israel’s war on the territory, with the conflict resulting in catastrophic numbers of maternal deaths, miscarriages and birth complications, two reports have found.
The data on pregnant women, babies and maternity care in the war-torn Palestinian enclave also revealed a surge in newborn mortality and premature births, The Guardian reported on Wednesday.
Dangerous wartime conditions and Israel’s systematic destruction of Gaza’s health systems were blamed for the alarming statistics.
The two reports were conducted by Physicians for Human Rights, in collaboration with the University of Chicago Law School’s Global Human Rights Clinic and Physicians for Human Rights — Israel.
Researchers highlighted Israel’s “deliberate intention of preventing births among Palestinians, meeting the legal criteria of the Genocide Convention.”
The reports build on earlier findings by PHR’s Israel branch. They place the testimonies of pregnant women and new mothers within the context of health data and field reports, which recorded “2,600 miscarriages, 220 pregnancy-related deaths, 1,460 premature births, over 1,700 underweight newborns, and over 2,500 infants requiring neonatal intensive care” between January and June 2025.
PHRI’s Lama Bakri, a psychologist and project manager, said: “These figures represent a shocking deterioration from pre-war ‘normalcy,’ and are the direct result of war trauma, starvation, displacement and the collapse of maternal healthcare.
“These conditions endanger both mothers and their unborn babies, newborns, and breastfed infants, and will have consequences for generations, permanently altering families.”
She added: “Beyond the numbers, what emerges in this report are the women themselves, their voices, choices and lived realities, confronting impossible dilemmas that statistics alone cannot fully capture.”
Maternal and newborn care in Gaza has been damaged by Israel’s destruction of health infrastructure, as well as fuel shortages, blocked medical supplies, mass displacement and relentless bombardment.
As a result, survival in Gaza’s overcrowded tent encampments has become the sole option for pregnant women and new mothers.
During the first six months of Israel’s war on the territory, more than 6,000 mothers were killed, at an average of two every hour, according to UN Women estimates.
It is also believed that about 150,000 pregnant women and new mothers have been forcibly displaced by the conflict.
In the first months of last year, just 17,000 births were recorded in Gaza, a 41 percent fall compared to the same period in 2022.
The researchers examined Israel’s apparent strategy to undermine Palestinian births, highlighting a targeted strike in December 2023 on the Al-Basma IVF clinic.
The attack on Gaza’s largest fertility center destroyed about 5,000 reproductive specimens and ended a pattern of 70-100 IVF procedures each month.
The strike was deliberately designed to target the reproductive potential of Palestinians, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry later found.
“Reproductive violence constitutes a violation under international law; when carried out systematically and with them intent to destroy, it falls within the definition of genocide of the Genocide Convention,” the reports said.
“The destruction of maternal care in Gaza reflects the deliberate infliction of conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinian people, in whole or in part.”
