Express.co.ukRANIAN President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has vowed to breach Israel’s blockade of Gaza, as two aid ships and a military escort prepare to set sail.
In a provocative move the Iranian Red Crescent was this weekend due to send two vessels packed with food and medical aid and 70 relief workers.
A third ship, carrying an operating theatre, could follow.
President Ahmadinejad raised the spectre of a sea battle as he warned the ships would be carrying an escort of “volunteer marines” ready to “teach Israelis a lesson”.
Ali Shirazi, the Revolutionary Guard’s spokesman for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said it was “Iran’s duty to defend the innocent people of Gaza”. Foreign Secretary William Hague described the intervention as “unhelpful”.
The blockade has been in place since Hamas took control of Gaza in 2006 despite international concern about a humanitarian crisis.
That concern turned to condemnation on May 31 when, in a raid on a Turkish aid flotilla, nine people were killed by Israeli commandos.
Despite promises of an inquiry the affair has all but destroyed relations between Israel and its main ally in the Muslim world.
Abdolrauf Adibzadeh, the Red Crescent’s director of international affairs, said the ships were being sent in co-ordination with the Turkish government.
Meeting Turkish leaders in Istanbul last week the Iranian president said the vessels would not shrink from a head-on clash with Israeli military.
The threat came ahead of a UN Security Council vote to strengthen sanctions on Iran over its uranium enrichment programme.
Turkey was one of the two nations to vote against the sanctions. The European Union will next week discuss tightening its own sanction regime amid fears Tehran is close to creating weapons-grade uranium. There are also concerns about human rights abuses in Iran, with opposition to the regime ruthlessly suppressed.
Posts
Oh dear. Not that what Iran is doing is wrong according to international law and the UN did say that they want people to break the blockade with humanitarian aid to Gaza, but this looks like a good candidate for "pretext" for the alternate reality that Israel has in regards to Iran to break through. The only way I think this would work is if Iran was non-violent in their approach, white flags and all, but if Israel attacks and they respond, of course it would be spun as "Iran attacked Israel" I'm not sure what would happen after that given the buildup between Iran and Israeli war pundits. And also given the hydrocarbon deposits in Iran.
ReplyDelete