Israel 'will take all necessary measures to protect its citizens' in wake of Iran's attack on ship: envoy
Israel's UN envoy urges Security Council to condemn Iran's violations of UN Charter, hold it accountable
Israel "will take all necessary measures to protect its citizens and its sovereignty," the country's US ambassador and UN envoy Gilad Erdan warned in a letter on Tuesday.
In the letter, Erdan accused Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of staging the attack on Israeli-owned MV Helios Ray cargo ship near the Gulf of Oman on Thursday.
Erdan said that the IRGC planted a bomb on the vessel, causing significant damage that forced the ship to return to Dubai for repairs.
Pointing at Iran's earlier arrest of a Korean tanker as another example, the diplomat accused Tehran of endangering the "safety and security of international shipping in flagrant violation of international conventions" as well as breaching the UN Charter.
"Iran will use any means to destabilize the region while continuing to fail to live up to its own obligations under international law," he warned.
The envoy called on the Security Council to "condemn the Iranian violations of the United Nations Charter and hold the Iranian regime responsible for this attack and for destabilizing the region."
Israeli officials were quick to say that Iran was likely behind the attack on the vessel, which did not cause any casualties among the crew.
Iran, however, denied it had anything to do with the attack and said on Tuesday it was closely monitoring Israeli movements in the area.