Dubai, United Arab Emirates –

Commandos from Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard rappelled from a helicopter onto an Israeli-affiliated container ship near the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday and seized the vessel, the latest in a series of attacks between the two countries. .

Earlier this month, the Middle East prepared for possible Iranian retaliation after Israel attacked a suspected Iranian consulate building in Syria, killing 12 people, including a top Guards general who had commanded the expeditionary Quds Force there. action.

Meanwhile, Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip has been going on for six months and is exacerbating decades of tensions across the region. With Iran-backed forces such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen also involved in the fighting, any new attacks in the Middle East risk escalating the conflict into a broader regional war.

Iran’s state-run Islamic News Agency said Iranian Guards naval special forces carried out the attack on the Portuguese-flagged MSC ship. Ariesis a cargo ship associated with London-based Zodiac Maritime.

Zodiac Maritime is part of the Zodiac Group owned by Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer. Zodiac declined to comment and referred questions to MSC. Geneva-based MSC later acknowledged the seizure and said there were 25 crew members on board. The Islamic News Agency said the guard would take the ship into Iranian territorial waters.

An unnamed Middle Eastern defense official earlier shared video of the attack with The Associated Press. In the video, Iranian commandos rappel down to a stack of containers on the deck.

A crew member on the ship can be heard saying: “Don’t come out.” He then tells his colleagues to head to the bridge as more commandos come on deck. One commando can be seen kneeling above the others, providing them with potential covering fire.

The video matches known details of the MSC Aries. The helicopter used also appeared to be a Soviet-era Mil Mi-17, which the Guard and the Houthis have used in the past to conduct commando attacks on ships.

The British military’s UK Maritime Trade Operations said the ship was “seized by regional authorities” in the Gulf of Oman near the UAE port city of Fujairah, without elaborating.

MSC Aries It was last seen on Friday near Dubai en route to the Strait of Hormuz. The ship had turned off tracking data, which is common for Israeli-affiliated ships passing through the area.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz called on countries to designate the Islamic Guard as a terrorist organization.

Katz said Iran “is a criminal regime that supports the crimes of Hamas and is currently conducting piracy operations that violate international law.”

Iran has carried out a series of ship seizures since 2019, with attacks blamed on Iran amid ongoing tensions with the West over its rapidly advancing nuclear program.

Since November, Iran has scaled back attacks on ships as the Houthis have targeted shipping in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. Houthi attacks have slowed in recent weeks as the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan ends, and the rebels have faced months of U.S.-led airstrikes targeting them.

In previous seizures, Iran offered initial explanations for its actions to make the attacks appear unrelated to broader geopolitical tensions – although it later admitted as much. However, in Saturday’s attack, Iran offered no explanation for the seizure, saying only that MSC Aries Ties to Israel.

For days, Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have threatened to “slap” Israel for attacking Syria. Western governments have issued warnings to citizens in the region to prepare for attacks.

However, Iran has largely avoided direct attacks on Israel in the past, despite Israel’s targeted killings of nuclear scientists and numerous sabotage campaigns against Iran’s nuclear facilities. However, for decades, Iran has targeted websites linked to Israel or Jews through proxy forces.

Earlier this week, Guard General Ali Reza Donsiri, who oversees the naval forces, criticized the Israeli presence in the region and the United Arab Emirates. The UAE reached a diplomatic recognition deal with Israel in 2020, which has long angered Tehran.

“We know at this point that the Zionists were not just being brought in for economic work,” Tangsiri reportedly said. “Now they are actually doing security and military work. This is a threat, this It shouldn’t have happened.”

Although Israel’s war on Gaza has killed more than 33,600 Palestinians and injured more than 76,200, the United States, Israel’s main backer, has supported the country, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Hamas launched a terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 people hostage. Then the Israeli war broke out.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday warned Iran against attacking Israel and said he believed an Iranian attack on Israel could happen “sooner or later.”

“We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” Biden said.

The Gulf of Oman is located near the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which one-fifth of the world’s traded oil passes. Fujairah, located on the east coast of the United Arab Emirates, is the region’s main port for ships to load new oil cargoes, receive supplies or exchange crews.

Since 2019, a series of explosions and hijackings have occurred in the waters off Fujairah. The U.S. Navy accused Iran of carrying out a mine attack on the ship that damaged the tanker. Meanwhile, the UAE seeks to repair relations with Iran and issued a statement condemning Israel’s alleged attacks on Syria.