The Iranian missile attack on an Israeli-flagged vessel gives the impression of being an action aimed at testing the capabilities and willingness to react of the West and above all of the new American Administration. This is also why it is important that he does not pass over in silence, especially now that Joe Biden, in his transatlantic embrace, is willing to comply at least in part with European requests for a restoration of the nuclear deal from which Trump’s America had emerged. unilaterally making it useless.
Yesterday Channel 12 launched the news: an Iranian missile hit an Israeli XT Management freighter that was going from Tanzania to India. A few days ago, in this newspaper we resumed an investigation by the Wall Street Journal which, citing regional and American sources, said that in the last 18 months Israel had attacked a dozen Iranian ships bound for Syria. The Tehran regime had not reacted publicly and this led to the belief that weapons and crude oil destined for the Revolutionary Guards were being transferred to those ships. An investigation by the Haaretz newspaper published last Friday said the Wall Street Journal’s portrayal was partial: the naval war between Israel and Iran is much wider than that. Last month, an Israeli commercial ship partially exploded in the Gulf of Oman. Israel accused Iran, Iran denied.
There have been no comments yet on the missile that became known yesterday, and even Israel’s foreign ministry said it is checking media reports. But these clashes are the naval version of what is already happening on the mainland: every month, Israeli air strikes destroy military loads that have arrived in Syria from Iran. It is in this context that the Biden administration must operate and decide what to do with the Iranian nuclear deal.