Teheran is conducting piracy and should be sanctioned for it, Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday, after Iran's Revolutionary Guards seized an Israeli-linked cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz.
"The Ayatollah regime of Khamenei is a criminal regime that supports Hamas' crimes and is now conducting a pirate operation in violation of international law," Katz said. "I call on the European Union and the free world to immediately declare the Iranian Revolutionary Guards corps as a terrorist organization and to sanction Iran now."
Earlier, an Israeli military spokesperson said Iran will bear consequences if it escalates violence in the region.
"Iran will bear the consequences for choosing to escalate the situation any further," Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a statement. "Israel is on high alert. We have increased our readiness to protect Israel from further Iranian aggression. We are also prepared to respond."
The Iranian state-run IRNA news agency reported that a Guards helicopter had boarded and taken into Iranian waters the Portuguese flagged MSC Aries.
The Aries is leased by international shipping line MSC from Gortal Shipping, an affiliate of Zodiac Maritime, Zodiac said in a statement, adding that MSC is responsible for all vessel activities. Zodiac is partly owned by Israeli businessman Eyal Ofer.
