By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer

Monday’s attempted attack on an Iranian oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden en route to the Mediterranean via the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, was certainly foiled due to the presence of our ever alert naval forces in the region, but it should not be dismissed as a futile bid by petty pirates who randomly prey on passing vessels.
The fact that it was the second such aborted attempt in less than a month to seize an oil tanker in the same waters near to the coast of Yemen, means there are fully organized anti-Iranian elements in the region, trying to test the prowess and technical capabilities of our naval forces, in order to inflict a blow in case of any laxity on the Islamic Republic’s part.
It is anybody’s guess who the buccaneering elements hidden behind the pirates are?
Fingers could be pointed in several directions, especially towards the US and the illegal Zionist entity, both of whom are the sworn archenemies of the Islamic Republic.
They, however, do not dare to embroil Iran into a crisis in international commercial shipping lanes, and neither do their client regimes which never use their own forces but rely on mercenaries to ignite tensions, wars, and bloodshed in the region, in a bid to escape responsibility.
The goal is obvious. The reactionaries desperately need to deflect attention from the ignominious defeat in Yemen of the US and its proxies.
A case in point is the feverish diplomatic row kicked up with Lebanon by certain rootless and unrepresentative regimes which are trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill, following the disclosure that the newly appointed Information Minister had a couple of months ago expressed the plain truth that Yemen’s popular forces are bravely defending their homeland against the futile Saudi invasion.
George Kordahi, who as a political analyst then holding no governmental post disclosed these barely hidden facts in an interview with Qatar’s al Jazeera TV, is being targeted because Israel does not like him for supporting the Palestinian cause and having the courage to defend the oppressed people of Yemen against regimes dallying with the Zionists and indulging in the massacre of fellow Arabs.
The Islamic Republic is accused by the US, the Zionists, and their clients for the same fault. Since they cannot pressure the region’s paramount power which strives for regional stability in the face of American hegemony, Zionist predations, and takfiri terrorism, they seem to be plotting for disruption of Iran’s commercial shipping through pirates operating off the coast of the Horn of Africa.
In view of these facts, Iran’s 78th fleet needs to be further augmented and equipped with state-of-the-art naval deterrents, not just to prevent acts of piracy but also to give chase and nab the hitherto unidentified pirates, who might have some interesting things to disclose.