WarSclerotic

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — The Iranian Revolutionary Guard seized a ship in the Persian Gulf suspected of carrying smuggled fuel, state media reported Sunday, marking Iran’s third seizure of a commercial vessel in recent weeks and the latest show of strength by the paramilitary force amid a spike in regional tensions.

State TV and the semi-official Fars news agency reported that seven crew members were detained when the ship was seized late Wednesday carrying 700,000 liters of “smuggled fuel” from Iran. The local reports did not provide further details on the vessel or the nationality of the crew.

The news agency reported that the ship was seized near Farsi Island, where an Iranian Guard Navy base is located. The island sits in the Persian Gulf between Saudi Arabia and Iran, north of the Strait of Hormuz.

“This foreign vessel had received the fuel from other ships and was transferring it to Persian Gulf Arab states,” Fars quoted Gen. Ramazan Zirahi, a Guard commander, as saying.

This would mark the third vessel seized by the Guard in the past two weeks, and the second accused of smuggling fuel.

In this file photo taken on April 30, 2019, Iranian soldiers take part in the National Persian Gulf Day in the Strait of Hormuz. (Atta Kenare/AFP)

The US Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain, said it did not have information to confirm the reports. Maritime tracking experts also said they did not have any immediate information about the incident or the vessel.

Illegal fuel smuggling out of Iran is a concern of authorities there. Iranian media reported last month that some 8 million liters of government-subsidized Iranian fuel are smuggled daily through Iran’s borders to other countries where prices are much higher.

Tensions have soared around the Strait of Hormuz, a critical oil shipping waterway that lies between Iran and Oman. The US has boosted its military presence in the region and six oil tankers have been targeted in the Gulf of Oman in unclaimed acts of sabotage that the US blames on Iran. Iran has denied any involvement in those attacks.

This image released by the U.S. Department of Defense on Monday, June 17, 2019, is a view of hull penetration/blast damage on the starboard side of the motor vessel M/T Kokuka Courageous, which the Navy says was sustained from a limpet mine attack while operating in the Gulf of Oman, on June 13th. (U.S. Department of Defense via AP)

On July 18, the paramilitary force seized a United Arab Emirates-based oil tanker, the Panamanian-flagged MT Riah, for allegedly smuggling some 1 million liters (264,000 gallons) of fuel from Iranian smugglers to foreign customers.

The following week, the Guard’s naval forces seized a British-flagged vessel in the Gulf in what some Iranian officials suggested was retaliation for the seizure of an Iranian oil tanker in a British Royal Navy operation off Gibraltar. The UK says the Iranian oil tanker was suspected of violating European Union sanctions on oil shipments to Syria. Iran denies the ship was bound for Syria but has not disclosed its destination.

The tensions are rooted in US President Donald Trump’s decision last year to withdraw the US from Iran’s 2015 nuclear accord with world powers and impose sweeping sanctions on the country. Iran recently began openly breaching limits set by the nuclear agreement, saying it cannot abide by the deal unless European signatories provide some kind of economic relief.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said Thursday that a US decision to impose sanctions on Mohammad Javad Zarif showed Washington is afraid of the top diplomat.

“They are afraid of our foreign minister’s interviews,” Rouhani said in a televised speech, referring to a recent round of interviews Zarif gave to foreign media in New York.

“It is completely clear that the foundations of the White House have been shaken by the words and logic of an informed, devoted and diplomatic individual,” he said.

“They are doing childish things now. Maybe there’s no better way to describe (the sanctions) but childish,” Rouhani said on a visit to the northwestern city of Tabriz.

President Hassan Rouhani speaks in a cabinet meeting in Tehran, Iran, July 3, 2019. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP)

“Our enemies are so helpless that they have lost the ability to act and think wisely,” he added.

Rouhani was speaking after Washington announced Wednesday it was placing Zarif under sanctions. The sanctions freeze any of Zarif’s assets that are in the United States or that are controlled by US entities, the government announced, saying it also would curtail his international travel.

While the Trump administration did extend waivers allowing foreign firms to work at Iranian nuclear facilities without fear of US, it said that Zarif “implements the reckless agenda of Iran’s Supreme Leader, and is the regime’s primary spokesperson around the world.”

Zarif has been at the heart of complex talks with foreign capitals over Iran’s nuclear power industry, which Tehran says is peaceful, but Washington and regional allies including Israel insist is cover for a secret weapons program.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif (2R) gestures during a high level political forum on sustainable development on July 17, 2019 at UN Headquarters in New York. (Kena Betancur/AFP)

But a senior Trump administration official said that Zarif’s diplomatic image — bolstered by his fluent English, self-effacing humor and background as a US-educated academic — was false.

“The key issue is that he has had this veneer… of being the sincere and reasonable interlocutor for the regime. Our point today is that he is no such thing,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

“Today President Trump decided enough was enough,” the official said, accusing Zarif of functioning as “propaganda minister, not foreign minister.”

The highly unusual action of penalizing the top diplomat of another nation comes a month after Trump signed an executive order placing sanctions on Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In response to that announcement, Zarif claimed Washington was trying to silence the Islamic Republic on the international stage.

“The US’ reason for designating me is that I am Iran’s ‘primary spokesperson around the world’ Is the truth really that painful?” he tweeted.

The sanctions against Zarif are largely symbolic as US officials said his travels to New York for official UN business will not be inhibited, in accordance with America’s international obligations, and the fact that he has little financial interest in American jurisdictions.

“It has no effect on me or my family, as I have no property or interests outside of Iran,” Zarif tweeted.

In addition to attempting to freeze his assets, Washington is attempting to limit Zarif’s ability to function as a globe-trotting diplomat.

US President Donald Trump looks at Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as he participates in a Cabinet meeting at the White House on July 16, 2019 in Washington,DC. (Nicholas Kamm / AFP)

In mid-July, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Zarif would be issued a visa to the US, but would be limited to the area reaching six blocks around the UN headquarters.

Trump last year left the 2015 denuclearization accord negotiated by Zarif with six nations including the United States under former president Barack Obama and imposed crippling sanctions on Tehran’s economy, also vowing to curb Tehran’s regional influence.

With tensions escalating in June, Trump says he issued a last-minute cancellation of military strikes on Iran after it shot down a US drone.

Three Israeli soldiers were injured by Palestinian gunfire near the Gaza border early Thursday, sparking the heaviest cross-border fighting in weeks.

An officer and two soldiers were hit by fire by a Palestinian gunman who crossed the border into Israel, according to the Israeli military.

The gunman was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers, the army said, adding that it also hit a Hamas post in the area with tank fire.

The attacker was armed with a rifle and grenades and wearing a Hamas uniform, according to the IDF. However, an army spokesperson said the military believes the attacker was acting alone and not on orders from Hamas.

Last month the IDF said a misunderstanding led its troops to kill a member of the Hamas terror group as he was trying to prevent Palestinian youths from breaching the security fence. That highly irregular acknowledgment of such a mistake appeared to be an effort by the Israel Defense Forces to calm tensions with Hamas and prevent another round of violence.

Wednesday’s gunman was named by Gaza media as Hani Abu Salah, a member of the military wing of Hamas whose brother was killed in a clash with the IDF last May.

There was no immediate comment from Hamas, a terror group which is the de facto ruler in the Strip.

The Israeli soldiers were taken to Soroka hospital in Beersheba with non life-threatening injuries. The officer was receiving care for moderate injuries while the two lightly wounded soldiers were released shortly after their arrival.

The army said the incident began after troops were deployed to investigate the suspected gunman as he neared the Gaza border fence.

Palestinians had earlier reported heavy fighting near Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

Video purportedly from the scene published by Palestinian news outlets showed flares fired into the sky, apparently by Israeli troops, to light the battlefield. Local residents also reported hearing heavy gunfire.

The army said it closed roads near the border and deployed extra troops to communities near the border during the firefight.

The flareup of violence broke several weeks of relative calm along the normally restive border.

The beginning of 2019 saw a dramatic increase in the level of violence along the Gaza border, with near nightly riots and airborne arson attacks, but the violence has waned in recent weeks due to a de facto ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Gaza-ruling Hamas terror group.

Palestinian demonstrators throw stones at Israeli security forces during protests along the border with Israel, east of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on July 12, 2019. (MAHMUD HAMS / AFP)

On Wednesday, Israel wrapped up a four-day drill meant to prepare for the possibility of war with fighters based in the Palestinian enclave.

During the drill troops took to the streets of the city of Ashkelon in the middle of the night to simulate Gaza’s urban environment.

IDF soldiers during a military drill near the Gaza Strip, late July 2019. (IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)

Other scenarios included a possible terrorist attempt to take over Ashkelon and other locations via the sea; the evacuation of casualties in helicopters; the evacuation of residents from their homes; and taking over a neighborhood in the Strip.

Wednesday also saw the first fire in two weeks sparked in Israel by an incendiary balloon launched from Gaza, according to authorities.