The “worst ecological disaster” that the Hebrew state has known may have a political origin. In any case, this is what the Israeli Minister of the Environment suggests. In a press conference on Tuesday evening, Gila Gamliel accused Iran of being responsible for the tar oil spill that soiled much of Israel’s coastline in February. In recent days, the Israeli press had been subjected by the courts to a “publication ban” from anything related to the environmental disaster, a startling measure usually reserved for war information related to state security.
In parallel, the Israeli Ministry of the Environment carried out, through its marine environmental protection unit, a two-week investigation of which it unveiled the first elements on Sunday. According to Tel Aviv, the oil spill was caused by the dumping by a ship of “hundreds of tons” of bitumen on the Israeli coast. The strong winds then carried the tar on the beaches of Rosh Hanikra, near Lebanon, to Ashkelon, on the edge of the Gaza Strip. After combing through no less than 35 ships, including a suspicious Greek vessel that was finally cleared of all suspicion, the ministry came to the conclusion that the ship causing the tragedy was a Libyan oil tanker flying the Panamanian flag, and that he was linked to the Islamic Republic of Iran, Israel’s sworn enemy.
“Environmental attack”
Appointed Emerald, this 19-year-old building was carrying 112,000 tonnes of oil. Having left Iran, he allegedly cut off his AIS authentication transponder after crossing the Suez Canal, then “approached Israel’s exclusive economic zone”. He would then have “deliberately polluted” the Israeli coast on 1is and March 2, according to Gila Gamliel, who speaks of an “environmental attack”. The ship would then have turned on its GPS tracker again to reach Syria, where it would have unloaded its oil cargo in the port of Latakia, on March 3 and 4. According to Tel Aviv, he has since returned to Iran. The Israeli Minister of the Environment admits, however, that she does not have “irrefutable evidence” as to the guilt of the Islamic Republic, but claims to be based on “circumstantial evidence” gathered in particular using satellite images and data from circulation of global maritime traffic.
His shocking statements have sparked some skepticism within the Israeli intelligence community. “The Israeli army and intelligence agencies were not aware of the minister’s accusations until she presented them at a press conference, which took those responsible by surprise,” writes journalist Zafrir Rinat in the Israeli daily Haaretz. “Israeli intelligence and the navy were not involved in the investigation and the Israeli environment ministry did not ask for their help. ”
IDF and Mossad do not confirm
Contacted by Point, Israeli expert Raz Zimmt, a specialist on Iran at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Tel Aviv, also expresses his doubts about the version presented by Gila Gamliel. “Perhaps the Libyan ship was smuggling Iranian oil, but it was probably damaged and the incident does not appear to be deliberate at this stage,” he explains. “The Israeli army and the Mossad have claimed to have had no information so far that points to Iranian involvement. The historian Pierre Razoux, academic director of the Mediterranean Foundation for Strategic Studies (FMES), is on the same line. “It is not the type of Iranians to carry out such attacks, which they did not do, even at the height of the Iran-Iraq war”, underlines this specialist in the region. “The incident is also not in Iran’s interest vis-à-vis the Palestinians, with the risk of pollution of Gaza’s beaches. ”
Iran’s responsibility was already pointed out earlier this week, this time by the Israeli prime minister, in another incident involving an Israeli ship off the Sultanate of Oman. The MV Helios Ray, a boat carrying motor vehicles, was the victim of an explosion last week while en route from the Saudi city of Dammam to Singapore. The attack, which left no casualties among the crew, has been categorically denied by Iran. However, the ultra-conservative Iranian daily Kayhan, close to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, wrote on Sunday that she was part of the Iranian response to attacks on her forces in the region.
Israeli elections
“This attack on the Israeli ship this time certainly benefited from Iranian support, which is moreover the estimate of the Israeli Ministry of Defense”, underlines Raz Zimmt. “It seems different with regard to the oil spill, where we have a minister, whose rank is not very high, who is agitating the Iranian threat three weeks before the legislative elections in Israel, which is not not a bad thing for Benjamin Netanyahu. “Entangled in several judicial cases for corruption, the Israeli Prime Minister, of whom Gila Gamliel is a close friend, made the Iranian file one of the strong subjects of his campaign, in which he reiterates at will his firmness against the Islamic Republic on the Iranian nuclear power as on the establishment of the Revolutionary Guards in Syria.
“You know my policy,” Benjamin Netanyahu told Israeli radio on Monday. “Iran is Israel’s greatest enemy and I am determined to stop it: we will strike it all over the region. The two countries are at daggers drawn in Syria, where the Islamic Republic, the main supporter of Bashar al-Assad, wishes to establish itself on a long-term basis. Determined to prevent Iran from settling on its borders, the Jewish state has carried out hundreds of air raids against Iranian forces in Syria over the past decade, killing dozens of pro-Iran fighters. On the nuclear program, the Mossad is strongly suspected of being behind the sabotage of a factory in Natanz last August, as well as the assassination of Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in November, which Iran has vowed to avenge.
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