The above-mentioned countries remain silent when there are terrorist acts against Iranian merchant ships in the Red Sea and international waters, the ministry’s spokesman Saeed Hatibzadeh said
The accusations by the U.S. and British officials of Tehran’s involvement in the attack on the Japanese Mercer Street tanker are unfounded and politically motivated. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said this on Monday.
“The Foreign Ministry spokesman described as deeply regrettable the UK Foreign Office’s baseless accusations against Tehran, which were then repeated by US Secretary of State [Anthony Blinken]”б – the ministry’s press office reported. Khatibzadeh noted that “the accusations are made without providing any evidence.”
According to him, “the said countries remain silent when terrorist acts take place against Iranian merchant ships in the Red Sea and international waters, but at the same time make unsubstantiated accusations against Iran with a clear political bias.”
On Thursday, the Japanese tanker Mercer Street was attacked in the Arabian Sea. The ship’s operator, Zodiac Maritime, is owned by Israeli businessman Eyal Ofer. The incident resulted in the deaths of two crew members, a Romanian citizen and a British citizen, presumably responsible for guarding the ship. The Israeli and British Foreign Ministries, as well as the US Secretary of State, said Iran was responsible for the attack on the Mercer Street tanker.