'A criminal act and piracy': Iran blasts Israel's hijacking of Gaza flotilla
Iran Press TV
Monday, 09 June 2025 11:07 AM
The Iranian Foreign Ministry has lambasted the Israeli regime's hijacking of an aid vessel carrying 12 high-profile international campaigners towards the Tel Aviv-blockaded and war-battered Gaza Strip.
The attack is tantamount to "one of the very significant and horrifying" developments that the international community is witnessing, spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei told a press conference on Monday.
"The attack on this ship is undoubtedly considered to be an act of piracy under the international law, but since it is aimed at preventing aid to people who are facing genocide, it also constitutes a crime," he added.
The comments came after Israeli forces attacked the vessel, Madleen, from warships as it was approaching the coastal waters of the blockaded Palestinian territory.
"Connection has been lost on the 'Madleen.' The Israeli army has boarded the vessel," the Freedom Flotilla Coalition that operates the ship reported on the Telegram messaging app, adding that the troops had kidnapped the passengers too.
"Today, we watched a video from a Swedish woman, one of the passengers of the ship, who called on the world to take action and prevent the detention of the passengers aboard the ship," Baghaei noted, referring to comments that had been made by Greta Thunberg, noted Swedish activist, prior to the vessel's interception.
The official underlined that such developments highlighted the role of international organizations, especially the United Nations Security Council, to take immediate action to break Gaza's blockade and prevent massacre of civilians, particularly women and children.
The incident took place amid the Israeli regime's October 2023-present war of genocide on Gaza that has so far claimed the lives of close to 54,900 Palestinians, mostly women and children.
The regime has coupled the war with tightening of its already-18-year-old siege of Gaza. The intensified blockade is almost totally preventing the flow of aid into the impoverished territory.
Back in May too, Israeli drones had attacked a similar vessel boarded by Thunberg and others as it off Mata's coastline.
That attack shows the regime's preparedness to deploy armed violence towards denying Gaza's Palestinians of direly-needed relief supplies that was also witnessed by its 2010 deadly attack on a Turkish-flagged aid vessel heading towards Gaza.
'US proposal has trampled on negotiation process'
Elsewhere in his remarks, the spokesperson rejected a proposal forwarded via Oman to Iran by the United States towards consideration as part of April-present Muscat-mediated talks between the two sides.
"Any proposal that does not take into account the rights of the Iranian people, whether regarding the inclusion of [uranium] enrichment or effective removal of [Washington's illegal and unilateral] sanctions, is unacceptable to us."
He was addressing the contents of a plan presented by the Omani foreign minister to his Iranian counterpart late last month.
Reporting on the alleged contents of the proposal earlier this month, the American website Axios said it contained, among other things, a "three-percent" cap on the Islamic Republic's enrichment activities, downsizing of the country's nuclear infrastructures, rollback of its developmental efforts, "conditioned sanction relief," and formation of a reported "regional consortium" that would host enrichment activities.
This is while Iran has completely ruled out allowing sabotage of its peaceful nuclear activities on the basis of foreign parties' excessive demands, refused to forgo enriching uranium on its own soil, and laid emphasis on complete and meaningful removal of coercive measures by the US.
"The US's proposal is [simply] the US's proposal; naturally, any negotiating party can make proposals on their own part, but this proposal has not considered any of the issues raised by Iran," Baghaei said.
Iran's serious demand is removal of sanctions
The official said the Islamic Republic had, on the other hand, been developing a proposal of its own that is "nearing finalization," describing the proposal as "a reasonable one."
"Our advice to the Americans is to take advantage of this opportunity."
Baghae regarded the removal of the sanctions as a serious demand on the part of the Islamic Republic.
"Do not doubt that this matter has been raised decisively multiple times. Iran's most important demand is the effective removal of sanctions. The reason why this issue has not been properly addressed in the US proposal is something that they have been asked about."
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