The 13th June 2019 Israeli False Flag Attacks in the Gulf of Oman
On 13th June 2019 mainstream media outlets around the world shrieked loudly about two incidents that happened in the Gulf of Oman near the contested Strait of Hormuz between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
The details of the event have already begun to trickle out and I’ll summarize them here as follows:
A) The Japanese-owned ship the ‘Kokuka Courageous’ was attacked twice with the first being around 04:00 GMT and then again at around 07:00 GMT. (1)
B) The Norwegian-owned ship the ‘Front Altair’ was attacked three times in an unspecified time period. (2)
C) Both ships had 23 crew members. All of whom were rescued without injury. (3)
D) On 12th May 2019 four similar attacks occurred in the space of one hour in a Kuwati port facing the Gulf of Oman to ships owned by Saudi Arabia, Norway and the United Arab Emirates. (4)
E) All six attacks are believed to have been made using limpet mines. (5)
F) The ‘Kokuka Courageous’ was carrying a large cargo of ethanol – a highly combustible and explosive substance – when it was attacked. (6)
Adding to this; the 12th May 2019 attacks are believed by security experts – with good reason I think – to be the work of a state actor not a terrorist group. (7) This is likely true and these latest two attacks are also probably from the same (or a very similar) source given the co-ordination of the assaults and the use of limpet mines (although torpedoes are also claimed concerning the ‘Front Altair’) (8) rather than IEDs or more readily available types of ordinance.
The question on everyone’s minds is: who is responsible?
Predictably the United States – which is in effect a foreign policy proxy of Israel – blamed Iran for these attacks, (9) but Iran has explicitly denied this, and it turns out that both Iran and United States were the powers who rescued the crew of both the ‘Front Altair’ and the ‘Kokuka Courageous’. (10)
It is thus not likely to be Iran or even the powers on the Arabian Peninsula or the United States given that they have either suffered attacks on their vessels, rescued sailors and/or have explicitly denied involvement
The video released by the United States’ military of alleged ‘Republican Guards’ retrieving an ‘unexploded limpet mine’ from the side of the ‘Kokuka Courageous’ is not ‘evidence’ – despite Mike Pompeo’s assertions to the contrary – of Iranian culpability. (11) Since it could very well be that the alleged ‘Republican Guards’ were removing the ‘unexploded limpet mine’ to study it in order to ascertain who was undertaking these attacks.
Similarly a ‘US Navy Mine Expert’ named Colonel Sean Kido has claimed – without any kind of independent or demonstrative verification – that the mines are ‘made by an Iranian manufacturer with links to the Republican Guards’. (12) Yet offers no actual evidence of this beyond his personal opinion, which – without some kind of corroboration – is evidence only of the fact that the United States is trying to pin these attacks directly on Iran by any means they possibly can.
The major regional power who have not been mentioned by anyone other than the Iranians are the Israelis. (13) Who also happen to be the sworn enemies of Iran, hold huge pull over the United States’ political and intelligence establishment, are close allies of Gulf of Oman bordering Saudi Arabia (thus can likely operate freely) and are well-known to engage in unorthodox intelligence and provocation operations such as this is likely to be (just pick up say Gordon Thomas’ ‘Gideon's Spies’ if you wish to understand why I say this).
Israel clearly has the capacity and the motive to undertake such an attack, but what was its purpose?
Well, it just so happens that the then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was in Tehran for talks with the Iranian government at the time as the sanctions hit Iranian economy was struggling to get back on its feet. (14) Japan just so happened to have one of Iran’s most important pre-sanctions trading partners with a trade balance heavily in favour of Iran (15) and the ‘Kokuka Courageous’ just happened to be a Japanese ship. This has naturally heavily disrupted the negotiations between Iran and Japan and led to the trip being a bust. (16)
In essence; these attacks were designed to disrupt Japanese-Iranian economic rapprochement and they did the job perfectly. Then it is best put as the investigative tool of: cui bono (‘who benefits’)?
The only significant party who hasn’t been attacked or helped in the rescue effort who has everything to gain is Israel.
It is perfectly possible that I am wrong, but I rather doubt it in this instance.
References
(1) https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/japan-shipping-company-confirms-its-tanker-was-attacked-in-gulf-1.7365698
(2) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-48619771
(3) Ibid.
(4) https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/oil-tanker-sabotage-likely-work-state-actor-investigation-concludes-n1014951
(5) Ibid.; https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/japan-shipping-company-confirms-its-tanker-was-attacked-in-gulf-1.7365698; https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-navy-expert-mine-in-tanker-attack-resembles-iranian-make/
(6) https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/japan-shipping-company-confirms-its-tanker-was-attacked-in-gulf-1.7365698
(7) https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/oil-tanker-sabotage-likely-work-state-actor-investigation-concludes-n1014951
(8) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-48633016
(9) https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/japan-shipping-company-confirms-its-tanker-was-attacked-in-gulf-1.7365698; https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-june-13-2019/; https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-said-to-blame-irans-revolutionary-guard-for-attacks-on-oil-tankers/; https://worldisraelnews.com/us-blames-iran-for-tanker-attacks-in-gulf-of-oman/; https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/trump-calls-gulf-tanker-attacks-very-minor-as-pentagon-steps-up-rhetoric-1.7390332; https://www.timesofisrael.com/arab-league-chief-calls-on-iran-to-reverse-course-after-tanker-attacks/
(10) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-48619771; https://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-categorically-rejects-us-tanker-attack-allegations/
(11) Ibid.; https://www.timesofisrael.com/pompeo-us-forces-in-persian-gulf-just-a-deterrent/
(12) https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-navy-expert-mine-in-tanker-attack-resembles-iranian-make/
(13) https://www.newsweek.com/iran-officials-blame-us-israel-tanker-attacks-gulf-oman-1444286
(14) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48578314
(15) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Japan_relations#Trade_relations
(16) https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/06/14/shinzo-abes-mission-iran-ends-flames/; http://fortune.com/2019/06/13/oil-tanker-attacks-iran-japan/