Spokesman: Any adventurism will be met with Iran’s immediate, powerful response

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will not hesitate, even for a moment, to defend its security and national interests, and will answer any possible adventurism with immediate, powerful and serious action,” Saeed Khatibzadeh told reporters on Monday.

The Iranian ministry’s spokesman was reacting to recent statements by US and British top diplomats about Iran’s role in the Thursday attack on an Israeli tanker off the coast of Oman.

Without providing any proof, foreign ministers of both the United States and the UK accused Iran of having a direct role in the attack, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken alleging “we are confident that Iran conducted this attack, which killed two innocent people, using one-way explosive UAVs.

His British counterpart, Dominic Raab, also reflected on the matter, saying that the “unlawful and callous” attack had highly likely been carried out by Iran using one or more drones.

“Their coordinated statements contain contradictory phrases. They first accuse the Islamic Republic without providing any evidence and then speak of the ‘possibility’ [of Iran’s role in the attack],” Khatibzadeh said in reference to Raab saying, “UK assessments have concluded that it is highly likely that Iran attacked the MV Mercer Street in international waters off Oman on 29 July using one or more unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)

The foreign ministry spokesman stressed that Iran is a country that supports safe and secure marine traffic in the Persian Gulf and international waters, which enjoys the longest water border in the strategic region.

Noting that Iran is always ready to work with regional countries to provide maritime security, the Foreign Ministry spokesman said, “Tehran considers the presence and interventions by transregional forces in the Persian Gulf waters and its littoral countries as detrimental to regional stability and security.”

“It is regrettable that these [Western] countries, which have been supportively silent in the face of terrorist sabotages and attacks on Iran’s commercial ships in the Red Sea and international waters, are now leveling politically-motivated baseless accusations against the Islamic Republic of Iran. However, if they have any proof to back their baseless claims they must offer them,” the Iranian spokesman said.

Khatibzadeh’s remarks came after earlier on Monday, an informed Iranian source said that Iran will give a strong and crushing response to any measure taken against its national interests and security, blaming Britain and the US for the consequences of such moves against Tehran.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman also talked to media on Sunday, saying that recent accusations leveled against Tehran by Israel and the United States about attacking an Israeli-owned merchant ship in the Sea of Oman are “childish” and influenced by the Zionist lobby in the United States.

“The illegitimate Zionist entity must stop leveling baseless charges against Iran. This is not the first time that this regime brings up such accusations [against Tehran],” he added.

Khatibzadeh noted that such accusations are leveled by the well-known lobby of the Zionist regime in the United States, adding, “The Zionist regime’s officials must know that such projectionist moves will not help them in any way.”

In recent months, several other Israeli-managed ships have come under attack on various maritime routes across the world. 

The attacks come against the backdrop of the Israeli regime’s unrelenting assaults on cargo ships across the Persian Gulf region and elsewhere.