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Friday, August 06, 2021

08/06 Links Pt1: Ruthie Blum: Time to take advantage of cracks in Tehran’s armor; Lebanese Druze intercept truck with rockets meant for Israel; The “Squad” targets Jerusalem

From Ian:

Ruthie Blum: Time to take advantage of cracks in Tehran’s armor
According to MEMRI, he went on to say, “Lebanon and Hezbollah now stand strong and capable against the Zionists, and every time the enemy wants to make a move, Hezbollah nips it in the bud. America has brought the nations of the world nothing but poverty, backwardness and the looting of their wealth. America has lost its credibility in Iran, and we sacrifice our lives for the Iranian nation.”

Then, he hit the relevant crux of the matter.

“Now that the enemies have all realized that they are unable to defeat the Iranian nation in bitter warfare,” he said, “they have hatched other plots, such as imposing economic sanctions… From the first day of the [Islamic] Revolution, our enemies, chief among them America, showed their hostility towards us with all kinds of plots, assassinations, sanctions and threats, but our nation never stopped; [on the contrary, it] accelerated its pace.”

These foes, he announced, “must know that the Iranian nation will not give up Islam and the revolution because of power outages or a water shortage… The people of Iran have shown these days that they are loyal to the ideals of Islam and of the revolution.”

Salami seemed not to grasp that footage of those very people shouting to be released from the chains of the corrupt, repressive regime’s bondage has managed to make its way to Twitter for everyone to see and many to champion.

Whether or not his social-media adviser failed to fill him in on the discrepancy between his words and goings-on in the street below, however, he was able to claim with no small amount of justification: “Today, we are dictating the terms under which a superpower like America will return to the nuclear deal, and this indicates the [extent of] the authority wielded by Islamic Iran.”

Biden and his European cohorts must not prove him right. The time has come to take advantage of the cracks in the regime’s armor. Khamenei, Raisi and Salami should be put on notice that it is not they, but rather their victims, who warrant bolstering.

Since that’s not likely to happen in the immediate future, Israel will have to go it alone. Let’s hope that Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is up to the task.
The Caroline Glick Show: Episode 16: How to Overthrow the Iranian Regime | Guest: Cameron Khansarinia (NUFDI Policy Director)
In this week's episode of the Caroline Glick Mideast News Hour Caroline filmed from Washington, DC. Where she spoke with Cameron Khansarinia, Policy Director of the National Union for Democracy in Iran. The two discussed the anti-regime protests that have spread throughout the country. They talked about how the US and/or Israel can assist the protesters to bring down the regime. And they contemplated what Iran's achievement of military nuclear capabilities will mean for human rights in Iran and international security.

This episode is dedicated to the courageous men and women in Iran risking their lives for freedom. Their struggle truly is our struggle. Their success will be a blessing to us all.


On Israel TV, prisoners who escaped Iran’s 1988 killings compare Raisi to Hitler
In Israeli TV interviews broadcast Thursday, former political prisoners who escaped Iran compared the Islamic Republic’s new President Ebrahim Raisi to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler for his alleged central role in extrajudicial executions, mostly of young people, across Iran in the late 1980s.

“It was exactly like the final solution that Hitler made for the Jews,” Iraj Masadagi, a former Iranian political prisoner, told the Kan public broadcaster.

“Raisi was a killer,” Masadagi continued. “He talked to me, and he said that they don’t want to have any more political prisoners. He said that we want to solve the ‘problem.”

The ultra-conservative cleric Raisi was sworn in on Thursday as the Islamic Republic’s eighth president. He has been accused by activists and human rights groups of having played a key role as a prosecutor on the “death commission” that sent thousands of prisoners to their deaths in 1988.

Amnesty International has described the killings as a crime against humanity.

“They sent hundreds of prisoners to the gallows,” Masdagi said. “When I see him I see the face of the one who killed my fellow prisoners, my friends, my beloved ones.”

Masdagi, one of the tens of thousands of political prisoners in Iran at the time, told Kan he spent 10 years in jail, starting in 1981. “I was in solitary confinement for a long period, and when I see him, I remember those days, that I was tortured,” he said.
Israeli Officials, Human Rights Activists Condemn EU for Envoy Appearance at Iranian Presidential Ceremony Next to Terrorist Leaders
Israeli officials and human rights activists criticized the presence of a top European Union diplomat seated immediately behind senior leaders of the Hamas and Hezbollah terror groups at Thursday’s inauguration of hardline Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi.

The Israeli embassy in Austria — the country hosting ongoing talks between Iran and world powers over the 2015 nuclear deal — called the attendance of EU representative Enrique Mora at the inauguration of the cleric “unbelievable but true.”

Raisi was placed under US sanctions in 2019 after his appointment to lead Iran’s judiciary, for his alleged role executing thousands of political prisoners in 1988.

Also attending Thursday’s event were leaders of three militant groups that the Israeli embassy noted are on the EU terrorist list.

Mora was spotted behind Palestinian Islamic Jihad chief Ziad al-Nakhalah, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem, who were taking their seats in the first row at the presidential ceremony.

“Hezbollah, Hamas & the EU in one photo at the inauguration of the ‘butcher of Tehran.’ How can they [EU] preach about human rights while sitting with representatives of terrorist organizations days after Iran’s murderous attack on a civilian ship and right before the UNSC discusses the issue?” Gilad Erdan, Israel’s Ambassador to the United States and the United Nations, questioned.


UN Watch: UNRWA Announces Investigation Into 10 Teachers & Staffers For Anti-Jewish Hate, Supporting Terror
Reaction by UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer to UNRWA Statement:
”UNRWA’s reply misses the point entirely. If the agency employs dozens of teachers and school principals who quote Hitler and praise Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist attacks, the issue isn’t their social media posts and their so-called ‘neutrality breaches,’ but rather the fact that UNRWA’s education system is repeatedly hiring and putting in the classroom teachers that admire Hitler and propagate hatred and terrorism.”

”Deleting a post on Facebook does not remove the hate in those teachers’ hearts and minds. It does not solve the problem. And claiming, as UNRWA does in its response, that certain teachers were not employed with UNRWA at the time that they advocated racism or terrorism is equally beside the point. Palestinian children deserve to be fully protected from teachers of hatred and racism. Zero tolerance in schools means you remove racists from the classroom, period.”

”We regret that UNRWA is trying to kill the messenger by maliciously attacking UN Watch for vetting their teachers regarding racism and terrorism, a minimal form of oversight that the agency itself has failed to exercise. UNRWA slanderously accuses us of ‘unfounded and politically-driven assertions,’ yet it fails to cite a single example. By contrast, UN Watch’s series of reports, including our new list of more than 100 UNRWA staffers guilty of incitement, are replete with supporting factual evidence in footnotes, links and screenshots.”

”Facing serious allegations about widespread support for antisemitism and terrorism among its educators, UNRWA is burying its head in the sand, falsely pretending that these are isolated cases. The opposite is true. We know and have documented that for every UNRWA teacher that praises Hitler or Hamas terrorist attacks on social media, there are dozens of that teacher’s UNRWA colleagues (see report at pp. 46, 47, 162 & 195) and students who endorse the posts. The problem is systemic.”

”Regrettably, in breach of its obligations as a United Nations agency, UNRWA has repeatedly refused to engage with UN Watch, an accredited NGO with the United Nations, regarding evidence of their teachers’ incitement. As documented in our report, since 2015 UNRWA has ignored direct requests made to their leadership, including correspondence sent directly to the previous head of UNRWA. If and when UNRWA gets serious about investigating evidence of incitement by their teachers, we remain ready at any time to meet with Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini in Geneva, Jerusalem or anywhere else, and to provide substantial additional information that we have collected.”

”Finally, it is unacceptable for UNRWA to make vague and non-specific denials concerning documented evidence of UNRWA staff incitement. Especially given the agency’s ethics crisis and credibility gap that caused Switzerland and other donor countries to freeze funding to UNRWA in 2019, it needs to show minimal transparency and accountability by publicly detailing which charges they reject, and to explain why they are not firing UNRWA teachers who publicly propagate antisemitism and support for terror.”


US ambassador to UN praises UNRWA, but promises to hold it accountable

David Singer: King Abdullah's unfortunate intransigence
Abdullah’s uncle – Prince Hassan – told the Jordanian National Assembly on 2 February 1970:
Palestine is Jordan and Jordan is Palestine, there is one people and one land, with one history and one and the same fate”

- The PLO unsuccessfully tried to seize power in Jordan in 1970
- Prime PLO political strategist – Abu Iyad – declared in Near East Report on 8 January 1990:
“All those who tried in the past and are still trying to create divisions between the Jordanian and Palestinian people have failed. We indeed constitute one people”

Abdullah ignores these long-standing realities at his peril.

Abdullah is deluding himself in denying the role Jordan must inevitably play in achieving the long sought-after two-state solution: Redrawing the international border between Jordan and Israel - the two successor States to the British Mandate – allocating sovereignty between them in Judea Samaria and Gaza - without creating another State.
Does Jordan Have an ‘Incitement Force’ on the Temple Mount?
At the end of the Gaza war in May, during a meeting with members of the Palestinian Affairs Committee of the Jordanian Senate, Dr. Muhammad Khalaila, Minister of Religion of the Hashemite Kingdom, revealed two interesting things.

First, the cost of maintaining Jordanian workers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is funded by Jordan, is about $17 million a year (12 million Jordanian dinars). As is well known, Jordan attaches great importance to its position as the mosque’s “guardian,” rivaling Saudi Arabia’s traditional role as guardian of Islam’s holiest shrines in Mecca and Medina.

The second item revealed by the minister is that there are 850 Jordanian employees in Al-Aqsa who are registered as official employees of the Jordanian Ministry of Religion.

This is curious. As anyone visiting the mosque can attest, no more than a few dozen Jordanian Waqf security guards are visible — not hundreds, and certainly nowhere near 850. So who are the others, where are they, and what are they doing?

The most likely hypothesis is that those workers are used as mercenaries of a sort in times of crisis. Many significant gatherings have sprung up almost instantly on the Temple Mount in recent years whenever the site deteriorated into violence — during the recent Gaza war, during the magnetometer riots (July 2017), during the Mercy Gate crisis (March 2019), and in many other violent outbursts. The Jordanian workers might serve as a “rapid incitement force” that increases the volume of the event, stirs up the crowd, and stimulates it to conduct riots, or joins with the crowd to create a sense of “togetherness” against the “occupation.” If each of those Jordanians brings along one or two young men, in a short time, thousands of rioters can be expected.
The “Squad” targets Jerusalem
Move over, Ben & Jerry’s. Now the congresswomen known as “The Squad” have launched a new attack on Israel—and, just like the ice cream maker, one of their prime targets is Jerusalem.

The dirty little secret of the Ben & Jerry’s assault is that it is aimed not just at “settlements” but at Israel’s capital, Jerusalem. The ice cream company’s use of the vague term “Occupied Palestinian Territory” is a deliberate attempt to hide the unpopular fact that their boycott extends to the Western Wall.

Now “The Squad” is taking aim at the Wall, too—only they are being much more open about it.

In a letter to Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen this week, four self-described “Squad” members, together with three other Democrats, called for revoking the tax-exempt status of American charities that send funds to projects in “Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

Yes, the Squad and company used the exact same term as did Ben & Jerry’s—except that they actually defined the territory in question. No less than five times in the letter, the signatories said they are referring to “the West Bank, including East Jerusalem” or “occupied East Jerusalem neighborhoods.”

The signatories were “Squad” Congressmembers Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Cori Bush of Missouri, and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, joined in this case by perpetual anti-Israel bandwagoneers Betty McCollum of Minnesota, André Carson of Indiana, and Mark Pocan of Wisconsin.

The letter is pretty much what you would expect from the Israel-bashing crowd. Lots of angry, overheated rhetoric. Ample slinging of mud. The standard rhetorical blasts— “forced evictions,” “seizing lands,” “destroying Palestinian homes,” “international crimes,” “systematic discrimination.” And, of course, “apartheid.”
Hezbollah claims rocket barrage towards Israel from Lebanon
A heavy barrage of close to 20 rockets were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel on Friday, activating the Iron Dome and setting off sirens throughout the area.

Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks, saying that “at 11.15AM the Islamic Resistance responded to the Israeli aggression by targeting the vicinity of Israeli enemy posts in Shebaa Farms with dozens of rockets fired from woodlands that are far from residential areas.”

The Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted 10 rockets, with 6 falling in open areas near Har Dov on the Lebanese border. The others fell inside Lebanon.

Incoming rocket sirens were activated in northern Israeli communities bordering the Lebanese and Syrian borders including Ein Quiniyye, Neveh Ativ and Snir, near Israel’s northern border with Lebanon and Syria.

There were no injuries or casualties.

The IDF initially responded with artillery fire toward the Mount Dov - Shebaa Farms - area in Lebanon, from where the rocket fire originated. IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Ran Kohav told reporters that Hezbollah deliberately fired to open areas and not towards civilians.

“If Hezbollah wanted to carry out a significant response, they have the ability to do so,” he said.

“We have no interest in escalation but we will continue to work to ensure that the northern border does not become a line of confrontation,” he said. “No side wants war, but on the other hand we will not accept that this continues; that every two to three weeks there is firing towards the north.”


Gantz warns Lebanon: Your situation is dire and we can make it even worse
Defense Minister Benny Gantz warned Hezbollah and the Lebanese government on Friday that while the situation in their country is already dire, Israel was prepared to make it even worse, if quiet was not maintained on the northern border across which the Shiite terror group launched a barrage of rockets earlier in the day.

“We do not intend to let Hezbollah toy with us and Hezbollah knows this. Lebanon’s situation is shaky. We can make it even shakier,” Gantz told Channel 12, in reference to Israel’s northern neighbor, which is mired in economic collapse and political disarray.

“We recommend that Hezbollah, the Lebanese army and the Lebanese government don’t test the State of Israel,” the defense minister continued.

“We have no interests in Lebanon, except [in maintaining] security and quiet,” he said, adding that quiet will be met with quiet.

Nineteen rockets were fired into northern Israel from Lebanon on Friday morning, sending residents in a number of towns in the Golan Heights and Galilee Panhandle scrambling to shelters.
Lebanese Druze intercept truck with rockets meant for Israel
A group of Lebanese-Druze intercepted a Hezbollah-owned truck carrying rockets meant for Israel on Friday morning, after Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the rockets into Israel, diverting the rockets to the Lebanese Army.

In a video circulating social media, Druze men are seen circulating the car, attacking the Hezbollah member sent with the rockets.

They can later be seen dragging the rockets away.

The Lebanese Army later came to claim the rockets.

Lebanese-Druze have acted against Hezbollah in the past, most notably in 2008, when multiple clashes between the Druze people and Hezbollah succeeded in claiming casualties on both sides before a ceasefire was called.

The majority of Lebanese-Druze support the Lebanese Progressive Socialist Party, headed by Druze politician Walid Jumblatt. The party too, are outspoken in their opposition of Hezbollah.


Honest Reporting: Why Israeli Security Personnel Must Sometimes Resort to Using Force in West Bank, Gaza Strip
Tensions are once again mounting in the disputed West Bank, also known by its biblical name Judea and Samaria. Amid increasingly violent Palestinian riots along with reports that Hamas — a US-designated terror organization — is intensifying its efforts to recruit terrorists in the region, several Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli security forces (see here, here, here and here).

The fact of the matter is that Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers stationed in the West Bank protect the lives and property of both Israelis and Palestinians by, among others things, upholding law and order, thwarting terror attacks and de-escalating “protests.” In 2020, the IDF recorded 60 major Palestinian attacks on Israeli/Jewish targets in the West Bank. According to Israel Security Agency data, more than 400 other attacks were foiled.

Notwithstanding, the use of live fire by Israeli soldiers has often come under the scrutiny of human rights organizations and, in some cases, deservedly so. For example, video footage surfaced in July that seemingly showed an off-duty Israeli soldier indiscriminately shooting at Palestinians in the West Bank town of Urif. While sources within the IDF told HonestReporting that the soldier’s fire did not cause any deaths, an investigation into the occurrence has nevertheless been launched.

Israel’s strict rules of engagement are clear: Only when there is a genuine threat to life are soldiers allowed to open fire. Indeed, British Colonel Richard Kemp once described the IDF as the “most moral army in the history of warfare.” At the same time, the West Bank remains a contested and extremely turbulent area where Palestinians regularly engage in violence and terrorism. Within this unpredictable and often chaotic environment, soldiers are often forced to make split-second decisions under enormous pressure.

This perpetual instability prompted HonestReporting to take a closer look at the reasons why the IDF might use deadly force against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. As a general rule, deadly incidents involving Israel’s security forces fall into one of the following categories:
- A Palestinian was neutralized while carrying out a terror attack;
- A Palestinian was hit by crossfire during riots;
- A purported incident never happened, or the IDF was not involved;
- An IDF soldier breached the rules of engagement.
Palestinian killed in clashes with IDF outside Evyatar
A 37-year-old Palestinian man was killed during clashes with the IDF outside of the Evyatar outpost on Friday afternoon. The Palestinian Health Ministry reported the death of Imad al-Dwikat after he was taken to Rafida Hospital in Nablus, where he died of wounds sustained in his upper body during clashes with IDF troops.

The Israeli military said that 700 Palestinians had gathered in the area, south of the Palestinian city of Nablus, burning tires and throwing rocks and petrol bombs towards troops and border police.

Israeli forces "responded with riot dispersal means," the IDF said in a statement. "We are aware of reports that a Palestinian was killed and a number of Palestinians were injured."

The Palestine Red Crescent ambulance service said that 21 other Palestinians had been shot by Israeli troops, most of them with rubber-tipped bullets. Others were treated for tear gas inhalation, it said in a statement.

Palestinian protests outside Evyatar have occurred weekly, despite an agreement between the settlers residing there and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett which saw them evacuate the outpost at the start of July.


Gaza terror groups send fire balloons into Israel, sparking four blazes
At least four brush fires were ignited Friday in southern Israel by balloons carrying incendiary devices that were launched from the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

Three of the fires ignited in the Kissufim forest, and another one in the Be’eri forest, two nature reserves located on the border of Israel and Gaza, a spokesperson for the Jewish National Fund said.

Fire services said they were working to extinguish the blazes and their investigators had determined that they were caused by four balloons carrying incendiary devices.

In Gaza, the so-called balloon unit, Ahfad an-Nassar, said it had launched balloon-borne incendiary devices toward Israel in solidarity with Lebanon.

“We will not be humiliated,” the group said in a brief statement on Friday.
Why are PA banks delaying transfer of Qatari funds to Gaza?
In a move that could jeopardize the fragile Egyptian-brokered ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, Palestinian Authority banking and humanitarian systems are refusing to be the conduit through which Qatar can disburse its aid money to the Gaza Strip, Ynet reported Thursday.

Palestinian sources told the news site that officials were concerned that if any Qatari humanitarian funds reached Gaza's Islamist groups, they could be exposed to lawsuits on the grounds of supporting and funding terrorism.

According to "the Memorandum of Understanding between the State of Palestine through the Social Development Ministry and the Qatari Foreign Ministry through the Gaza Rehabilitation Committee," the PA has agreed to transfer Qatari funds through banks subject to the supervision of the Palestinian Monetary Fund according to a list of names compiled by the Qatari side, Ynet said.

The transfers will provide much-needed assistance for approximately 100,000 beneficiaries from poor families, as well as some 28,000 additional ones, most of whom are Hamas officials.


Biden Team Discovers Merit of Trump's Iran Approach
The Biden administration and its advocates have never hidden their contempt for Trump’s policy of maximum pressure on Iran. According to Robert Malley, the lead U.S. negotiator at nuclear talks in Vienna, “we've seen the result of the maximum pressure campaign. It has failed.” A few days later the New York Times editorial board declared “‘Maximum Pressure’ on Iran Has Failed.” The administration’s plan was to revive Barack Obama’s 2015 nuclear deal by demonstrating its good will and flexibility. Yet with little progress to show after six rounds of negotiations, Biden’s team appears to be discovering that leverage is an indispensable part of diplomacy.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday questioned whether Tehran really wants to return to the nuclear deal, stating, “this can’t be an indefinite process.” One day earlier, the administration appeared to lay the groundwork for a potential pivot back to pressuring Iran. An unnamed senior U.S. official said Biden may consider an alternative policy especially as Tehran continues its nuclear advancement. If Iran makes it impossible to go back to the nuclear deal, the administration will return to “the dual track strategy of the past—sanctions pressure, other forms of pressure, and a persistent offer of negotiations.”

The unnamed official also warned Iranian negotiators that they “may believe they have taken the best punch the Americans can give, and that now they will be ok.” But that would be a mistake. The official noted that if Biden increased the pressure on the Islamic Republic he would benefit from an “international consensus…that there is no deal because of Iran, they will face the situation of 2012, not 2019.” In other words, Washington’s tougher stance would have European support, as it did during the pre-nuclear deal phase of Obama’s Iran policy.

But it will take a lot more than warnings from unnamed officials to persuade Tehran that Biden is less eager for a deal. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday criticized outgoing Iranian President Hasan Rouhani, saying: “In this government, it was shown up that trust in the West does not work.” Khamenei’s remarks were broadcast on state television and come a week before Ebrahim Raisi ascends to the presidency. Raisi is Khamenei’s hand-picked hardliner. His likely foreign minister believes that intransigence extracts concessions from U.S. negotiators. The first six months of Biden’s tenure showed that to be true, so his first challenge, if he is serious about changing course, will to be undo the mistakes already made.
Lawmakers Probe Biden Admin Bid To Nix Sanctions on Iran
Congressional foreign policy leaders are investigating the Biden administration's private negotiations with Iran, which could waive sanctions on the country and provide its hardline regime with cash assets.

Republican lawmakers in a letter sent Thursday to the State and Treasury Departments requested that those departments "hand over all records of any communications" with Iranian leaders that discuss agreements to unwind sanctions. Iranian leaders revealed last month that the Biden administration is prepared to nix sanctions on the regime's lucrative oil trade and banks, as well as sanctions on senior government officials, including President Ebrahim Raisi, who was sworn into office on Thursday.

The lawmakers say it is unacceptable that Iranian officials have been briefed on these moves while the Biden administration continues to ignore congressional demands for information. U.S. officials continue to hash out the details of a revamped nuclear deal with Iranian diplomats in Vienna, though the talks have stalled in recent weeks over Iranian demands that the United States cancel virtually all sanctions that target the Islamic Republic.

The latest probe is just one of several investigations led by Republicans in Congress into the Biden administration's rumored concessions to Iran. State Department officials, including Iran envoy Rob Malley, have rebuffed all GOP requests for a briefing on the state of talks in the last several months. Internal administration records about the scope and scale of sanctions relief for Iran would help congressional opponents of the talks implement countermeasures to ensure sanctions remain in place.

"For months now, I have been pressuring the Biden administration for answers on sanctions relief that they plan to provide to the Iranian regime," Rep. Bryan Steil (R., Wis.), a member of the House Financial Services Committee, told the Washington Free Beacon. Steil is leading the investigation along with Reps. Jim Banks (R., Ind.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, and Joe Wilson (R., S.C.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. All of the lawmakers are also members of the Republican Study Committee, the largest conservative caucus in Congress, which is coordinating the series of probes into sanctions relief.

"It's concerning that the Iranian Parliament and the Iranian regime have more information on these talks than members of Congress in the United States," Steil said.


UN Security Council to discuss last week's attack on oil tanker
At the request of Britain, the UN Security Council plans to discuss last week's attack on an oil tanker off the coast of Oman.

The discussion is scheduled to take place behind closed doors on Friday, but the 15-member body is not expected to take any action.

Britain told the Security Council on Tuesday it was "highly likely" that Iran used one or more drones to carry out the tanker attack last week, which killed two crew members – a Briton and a Romanian.

"There's a lot of conflicting information. A 'highly likely' analysis, which we totally reject. We need to establish facts ... we don't need to rush to any conclusions or actions without having proof of what has happened," deputy Russian UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy told reporters on Wednesday.

Tehran has denied any involvement in Thursday's attack on the Mercer Street – a Liberian-flagged, Japanese-owned petroleum product tanker managed by Israeli-owned Zodiac Maritime.

The United States and Britain said on Sunday they would work with their allies to respond to the attack.







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