TEHRAN -- Chief commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Hussein Salami said here Saturday Iran hit over a dozen Israeli vessels after the regime targeted Iranian oil tankers in international waters.
“They (Israelis) hit 14 of our ships in order to choke off the export of crude oil. Initially, we did not know which party was responsible for the attacks as they were being conducted mysteriously. Finally, we discovered that the Zionist regime was accountable for them and 12 of their ships were hit.
“Once their fifth ship was hit, they held up their hands and called for the cessation of the ship war,” Salami said during a visit to Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters with President Masoud Pezeshkian.
He said when the UK seized an Iranian oil tanker off Gibraltar, “we took the Stena Impero and they surrendered”, referring to the IRGC’s confiscation of the British-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz in 2019.
“They took two ships from us in Greece, we took two ships from them and finally they surrendered,” Gen. Salami said, referring to Iran’s retaliation in May 2022 after the U.S. seizure of an Iranian tanker off the Greek coast.
“When our two oil tankers headed to Venezuela, the Americans threatened to seize them. I myself and [IRGC Navy chief Rear Admiral Alireza] Tangsiri simulated the operation of seizing an American oil tanker and announced it on radio call. When the Americans saw it, our tankers reached their destination safely,” he added.
Salami stated that Iran was going through an extremely difficult period at the time as top Iranian anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani had been assassinated in a U.S. drone strike near Baghdad airport, the COVID-19 pandemic had overwhelmed the country, economic sanctions were being applied at their maximum level, and enemies were trying to completely isolate the Islamic Republic.
The IRGC then utilized all capacities at its disposal to domestically develop and manufacture coronavirus vaccines, mitigate the economic fallout caused as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, secure the shipping lanes, nullify sanctions, and fight off the threat of foreign-sponsored takfiri terrorist groups, he said.
“We successfully managed to shut off all the openings that the enemy had created. The safest shipping lanes now belong to those vessels carrying the Iranian flag,” Salami added. 
Meanwhile, a high-ranking IRGC commander reiterated Iran’s resolve to avenge the blood of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh who was assassinated in the capital Tehran in July.
“The revenge is certain and it has been declared multiple times and there is no doubt about it. It must be taken at the right time to be effective,” Gen. Muhammad Reza Naqdi, the IRGC’s deputy commander for coordination, said.
“The public will hear good tidings about the revenge,” he added.
Haniyeh was assassinated alongside one of his bodyguards in Tehran on July 31, a day after he attended the swearing-in ceremony of Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Naqdi hit out at the Zionist regime’s months-long onslaught on the Gaza Strip and described the U.S. administration as the “sole patron” of the occupying entity’s crimes against Palestinians in the besieged territory.
“More should be done to stop the [Israeli] killing of children and students in Gaza.”