Israeli Defense Minister Accuses Iran Of Providing Drone Training To Foreign Militia Near Isfahan

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz. (Wikimedia Commons/IDF Spokesperson's Unit photographer)

JAKARTA - Israel's Defense Minister Benny Gantz accused Iran of providing drone training to foreign militias at an airbase near the city of Isfahan, a month after Tehran came under global scrutiny over an alleged drone attack on an Israeli-run tanker in Israel. off the coast of Oman, in a statement Sunday.

Israel has combined military strikes with diplomatic pressure to defeat arch-foe Iran, at a time when Tehran's nuclear negotiations with the West are at a stalemate, to strengthen regional influence through allied insurgents.

According to the Defense Ministry's Office, In what his office described as new disclosures, Benny Gantz said Iran was using the Kashan air base north of Isfahan to train "terror operations from Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon in flying Iranian-made UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles)," citing Reuters Monday, September 13.

Iran is also trying to transfer the know-how that enables the manufacture of UAVs in the Gaza Strip, on Israel's southern border, Gantz said at a conference at Reichman University near Tel Aviv.

In addition, the Israeli Defense Minister's Office provided what it said were satellite images showing UAVs on a runway in Kashan. There was no immediate comment from Iran.

The closest incident related to an Iranian drone was for example, the July 29 explosion on Mercer Street, a Liberian-flagged Japanese oil product tanker in the Gulf Waters, a major oil shipping route, killing two crew members, a British and a Romanian.

The vessel is operated and managed by London-based Zodiac Maritime, which is owned by Israeli king Eyal Ofer's Ofer Global group. Iran has been accused of attacking the drone, which is said to be manufactured in Iran.

However, Iran has denied involvement in the incident. Tehran rejects psychological warfare allegations that it was behind the deadly attack on a tanker off the coast of Oman, and says Tehran is seeking to improve the security of the strategic Gulf waterway.

"If we face the enemy, we will declare it openly, so the recent story by the enemy is a psychological operation," state media quoted Abolfazl Shekarchi, a senior spokesman for Iran's armed forces, as saying.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh rejected the statements of Group 7 (G7) countries, which said the evidence related to the attack on the tanker pointed to Iran, saying it threatened international peace and security, was baseless, government's media said.

"It should be noted that this incident occurred a few days before the inauguration of Iran's new president," Khatibzadeh explained.