Iran has warned that it could send Revolutionary Guard naval units to escort humanitarian aid convoys seeking to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza – a move that would certainly be challenged by Israel.
Any such Iranian involvement, raised today by an aide to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, would constitute a serious escalation of already high tensions with Israel, which accuses Tehran of seeking to build a nuclear weapon and of backing Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls Gaza.
“Iran’s Revolutionary Guard naval forces are prepared to escort the peace and freedom convoys that carry humanitarian assistance for the defenceless and oppressed people of Gaza with all their strength,” pledged Hojjatoleslam Ali Shirazi, Khamenei’s personal representative to the guards corps.
The threat came as the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, dismissed a UN proposal for an international commission to investigate last week’s commando assault on aid ships, in which nine people died. Another aid ship, the Rachel Corrie, carrying Irish and other peace activists, was boarded peacefully by Israeli forces on Saturday, escorted to the port of Ashdod, and its passengers deported.
Netanyahu has defended Israel’s right to maintain the blockade by arguing that without it Gaza would become an “Iranian port” and Hamas missiles would strike Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Israel’s undeclared aim is to weaken or bring down the Hamas government.
Iran continued to exploit the “freedom flotilla” affair to lambast Israel. Its foreign minister, Manuchehr Mottaki, told the Organisation of the Islamic Conference in Jeddah on Sunday that Israel’s crime was “another instance of the Zionist regime’s brazen and merciless treatment of Muslims, especially the oppressed Palestinian people.”
Shirazi said Iran should encourage international efforts to break the blockade. “We should expose our enemies to spontaneous global action and not let them achieve their heinous goals,” he was quoted as saying by the semi-official Mehr news agency.
(Source: Gaurdian UK)
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13 Responses
why are they doing this to us
I can hear the drums of war coming! Yidden do tshuva now!!! Listen to me! I know what I’m saying!!
Because Hashem wants us to shape up. They are just the pawns in his hands.
#1 A better question is what must we do to make sure we have earned the protection of H-sh-m, during such dire circumstances?
Interesting this is one of the least antisemitic articles I have seen from the Guardian ragsheet.
For THEM, this article is an accomplishment.
It is obvious that Iran wants to start a war with Israel. Nothing surprises me about Iran. Especially when you look at Iran’s history. FYI….before Iran, there was Persia which was an ally to Hitler’s Nazi Germany. So, nothing Iran does surprises me when it come to Jews. Hitler and Goebbles had Persia change the name to Iran. You can do all the name changes you want, but they are still Nazi’s at heart.
People, this looks like the beginning of a real war.
Hashem Yishmor
Very scary. Also I would imagine Usrael would welcome such an oppurtunity to strike Iran so this is a bit surprising unless Iran has what it’s been trying to get for so long and therefor isn’t scared HASHEM YIRACHEM
#8. I bet your right, which is why I don’t believe Iran will do it. However by Iran saying this it will scare the rest of the world about a possible war which will give more ammunition to knock down Israel. This seems more in line with all his other antics.
Does this mean they will use photoshop to draw in their boats to pictures of the terrorists’ flotilla, the way they draw in rockets and copy plumes and clouds?
An armed confrontation on the high seas would give Israel and/or the US a legal opportunity to take out Iran’s nuclear capability.
Bull’s Eye!
Oy, doesn’t anybody here have any knowledge of basic geography? Gaza borders on the Mediterranean Sea…Iran does not! The only way Iranian navy vessels can escort anybody would be to either (1) enter the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal — but the US Navy’s 5th Fleet might just decide to get in their way. Or (2) travel all the way around Africa and try to enter the Mediterranean from the Atlantic Ocean through the Strait of Gibraltar, and risk running into the US Navy’s 6th Fleet. Nah, I don’t think they’d try that either.
And don’t tell me: “Obama this and Obama that.” No president would be fool enough to allow the Iranians into the Mediterranean Sea…period.
Folks, the day that the Iranians can get a boat into the Mediterranean is the day that their boats can grow wings. It’s all a bunch of propaganda hooey.