Israel-Iran confrontation looms as Iranians set to challenge Gaza blockade with aid ships
the revolution (supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) gives an order in this regard, the Revolutionary Guards’ naval forces will take a practical step using their capability and equipment to escort flotillas to Gaza,” Khamenei’s aide in the Guards’ naval wing, Ali Shirazi, told the Mehr news agency on Sunday.
It was unclear, however, how the Guards would escort the flotillas as their naval wing is largely made up of speed boats and light vessels.
Last Monday’s Israeli commando raid on an aid flotilla headed for Gaza, in which nine pro-Palestinian activists died, has sparked outrage across the political spectrum in Iran.
Blaming the United States, Britain, and France for the deadly raid, Khamenei called for the prosecution of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak.
In a message issued last Tuesday, Iran’s supreme leader called on the international community to end the Israeli blocakde.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, too, lashed out at Israel, demanding that it face “political sanctions” for the raid.
The animosity between Iran and its regional archfoe has only worsened under Ahmadinejad, with top Guards commanders repeatedly boasting that the elite force has missiles capable of reaching any target in Israel.
The Gurdian’s Ian Black writes that Israel’s determination to strike at links between Iran and Hamas was dramatically demonstrated in January when presumed Mossad agents in Dubai assassinated Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who was described as the Hamas official in charge of smuggling Iranian weapons into Gaza.
Israel’s no-compromise attitude to aid convoys could be tested again after two Lebanese organizations pledged to send boats to Gaza in the next few days. Reporters Without Borders is attempting to assemble twenty-five European activists and fifty journalists for a boat leaving Beirut. The Free Palestine Movement is planning a similar attempt.
George Galloway, the founder of Viva Palestina, announced in London that two simultaneous convoys “one by land via Egypt and the other by sea” would set out in September to break the Gaza blockade. The sea convoy of up to sixty ships will travel around the Mediterranean gathering ships, cargo and volunteers.
Another aid ship, the Rachel Corrie, carrying Irish and other peace activists, was boarded peacefully by Israeli forces on Saturday, escorted to the port of Ashdod, and its passengers deported.
Netanyahu has defended Israel’s right to maintain the blockade by arguing that without it Gaza would become an “Iranian port” and Hamas missiles would strike Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Israel’s undeclared aim is to weaken or bring down the Hamas government.
