Dubai. August 1. INTERFAX-Iran has nothing to do with the attack on the Mercer Street tanker in the Indian Ocean, such accusations are groundless, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Sunday.
"There is nothing new in such searches for the guilty. Those who are responsible for this attack are the same (forces - IF) who made it possible for the Israeli regime to strengthen itself in this region," the Associated Press quoted him as saying.
At the same time, Khatibzadeh promised that Iran will not hesitate to protect its sovereignty and interests.
Earlier it was reported that the Japanese tanker Mercer Street, traveling without cargo from Dar es Salaam to Fujairah, was attacked in the north of the Indian Ocean. As a result, two crew members were killed - a British citizen and a Romanian citizen.
The US Navy noted that the first data received about the incident indicates that the attack, apparently, was carried out with the help of a drone.
The Iranian TV channel Al Alam TV, citing unnamed sources, claimed that the attack on the ship was carried out in response to an alleged Israeli attack on the Al-Dabaa military airport in Syria.
The source said that as a result of an Israeli air strike on the night of July 22, carried out in the Al-Qusayr district in the western Syrian province of Homs, two "resistance fighters" were killed, and Hezbollah's weapons and ammunition depots were destroyed.
The media, in turn, quoted the words of an unnamed representative of the Israeli authorities, according to which Israel is unlikely to be able to leave the incident without a reaction, since the operator of the Japanese tanker is an Israeli company.
