Iran rejects US claims on Tehran targeting tanker off India

AFP , Monday 25 Dec 2023

Iran's foreign ministry rejected Monday as "worthless" Washington's claims that a drone attack targeting a tanker off the coast of India was "fired from Iran".

Huthi military spokesman, Brigadier Yahya Saree, delivers a statement on the recent attacks against
FILE PHOTO: Huthi military spokesman, Brigadier Yahya Saree, delivers a statement on the recent attacks against two commercial vessels in the Red Sea during a march in solidarity with the people of Gaza in the capital Sanaa. AFP

 

Saturday's targeting of a Japanese-owned chemical tanker came amid a flurry of drone and missile attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels in the Red Sea in solidarity with Palestinians facing Israel's brutal war on Gaza.

The Pentagon later openly accused Tehran of the attack.

"We declare these claims as completely rejected and worthless," said 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.

The Gaza Strip has endured over 11 weeks of Israeli air and ground attacks that have killed more than 20,400 people, two-thirds of them women and children, according to the health ministry in the coastal territory.

Kanani also slammed as "repetitive" and "threadbare" recent remarks by UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron who branded Iran a "malign influence in the region and the world" and urged a "set of deterrent measures against" it.

Yemeni rebels' recent attacks on shipping vessels in the Red Sea have prompted major firms to reroute their cargo vessels around the southern tip of Africa, a much longer voyage with higher fuel costs.

Iran has repeatedly dismissed US and Israeli accusations that Tehran was involved in attacks by the Houthis, saying the group was acting on its own.

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