Iran rejects a report that an Iranian navy vessel has been targeted by "Israeli or American missiles" and was ultimately sunk in the Red Sea.
The report "about a missile attack by the US or Israel against an Iranian navy ship" is false, an informed source speaking on condition of anonymity told Press TV on Tuesday.
An Egyptian magazine had published a report, claiming that the Iranian vessel had been targeted by missiles near Sudan.
The unnamed source dismissed the report as the product of a propaganda machine against the Tehran government.
Iran's Navy has dispatched vessels to the Red Sea, in line with an international campaign, to fight off piracy off the coast of Somalia.
Pirates have hijacked more than 100 ships over the last year in the notorious waters of the Gulf of Aden.
Source: Press TV
Iran denies 'US-Israeli' assault on navy ship
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4 comments:
You delated this statement of Eritrea. Sorry that you don´t like the truth but your story above is garbage. So don´t insult your readers and let them read the stance of Eritrea about Israel and Iran.
Press Statement
By Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Apr 22, 2009, 14:42
Quoting obscure Israeli security officials, the Sunday Times published a report on April 19th claiming that "Israel and Iran are conducting rival intelligence operations in Eritrea."
The Sunday Times report further asserted: "Israel is said to have two Eritrean bases, one a 'listening post' for signals intelligence, the other a supply base for its German-built submarines, (while).. Iran has a naval base in (the Eritrean port) of Assab."
The invective against Eritrea has intensified in the past two months for reasons better known to its authors. It is nonetheless clear that it is driven by ulterior motives that transcend the fabricated, individual, events.
The main sources of these relentless vilification campaigns against Eritrea are, invariably, the key western intelligence sources that have refined the art of disinformation. Indeed, while these stories are originally concocted in the murky offices of these agencies, they are often attributed to some obscure "political dissident", "businessman" etc, in order to give them a semblance of credibility. Selected "human rights groups" (Africa Watch, CPJ etc.) and some NGOs are also being used as convenient conduits. The Sunday Times report is not thus a case of sloppy journalism. It is part and parcel of the disinformation campaign unleashed against Eritrea by these intelligence agencies with frantic intensity.
The facts are otherwise the following:
1. Israel does not have, and it never had, any base in Eritrea. But probably in order to sow discord between Eritrea and some Arab States, Israeli intelligence sources have been deliberately spreading, for the past 17 years, false rumours of a military base in the Dahlak Islands. When this lie was proven wrong beyond any shred of doubt, they appear to have come up with the new story of " two bases" . (The listening post is a throw back to the 1950s when the US acquired such a base at the Kagnew Station in Asmara, Eritrea's capital, in exchange for its support to Ethiopia's impending annexation of Eritrea).
2. Iran does not have a base in Assab or anywhere else in Eritrea. True, Eritrea and Iran have recently cultivated very warm diplomatic ties. But this is not different from the warm diplomatic ties that Eritrea enjoys with all other countries in the Middle East. Furthermore, Iran has resident embassies and much deeper economic ties with all other countries in the Horn of Africa: Ethiopia, Djibouti and the Sudan.
3. At a more substantive level and in terms of abstract rights, Eritrea has every prerogative and the inalienable right, as a sovereign state, to enter into military and economic alliances with any other country of its choice and in accordance with the exigencies of its national interests. If Eritrea has not provided a military base to any country so far, this emanates from its own considered choices. No other country has otherwise the right to approve or veto Eritrea's sovereign choices.
4. As pointed out above, the signing of bilateral or multilateral pacts and alliances is a matter of Eritrea's sovereign right. Eritrea does not, however, subscribe to the notion of providing military bases to other countries. Nor does it need them. Eritrea's sovereign choice has always been, and remains, that of aversion to dependency, polarized alliances and suzerainty.
5. In the context of all these well-known facts, it cannot be difficult to imagine the underlying motivation of the incessant smear campaigns.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Asmara
21 April 2009
Anonymous, i think you mean the last two news. I saw it too, he delated this press release. It´s good to drill them to read the truth instead of the propaganda against Eritrea. Eritrea don´t Israel or Iran, may be they forgot our history or the miss it.
Well, if you had been a little less rude we would not have deleted it. And repeated posting is considered spamming. As concerns denying the truth, take a look at the next post, I have actually posted your information as a post.
http://www.grandestrategy.com/2009/04/isreal-does-not-have-bases-in-eritrea.html
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