Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz accused Iran on Sunday of training foreign armed factions to use drones at an airbase near the city of Isfahan. This comes a month after Tehran faced international scrutiny following an alleged drone attack on an Israeli-managed tanker off the coast of Oman. Israel has employed airstrikes alongside diplomatic pressure to counter what it describes as an effort by its arch-enemy, whose nuclear negotiations with the West have stalled, to bolster its regional influence through allied armed factions.
Gantz, in statements described by his office as a new revelation, claimed that Iran is using the Kashan airbase north of Isfahan to train "terrorist elements from Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon on launching Iranian-made drones." He added during a conference at Reichman University near Tel Aviv that Iran is also attempting to "transfer knowledge that would enable the manufacture of drones in the Gaza Strip" on Israel's southern border.
His office provided what it claimed were satellite images of drones on the runways of the Kashan airbase. Iran has not yet commented on these accusations.
An explosion on July 29 aboard the oil products tanker Mercer Street near the Gulf of Oman, a major oil shipping route, resulted in the deaths of two crew members, one British and the other Romanian. The tanker, operated and managed by Zodiac Maritime, owned by Israeli businessman Eyal Ofer (Ofer Global Group), flies the flag of Liberia and is owned by Japan. The U.S. military stated that explosive experts from the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan, which was sent to assist the Mercer Street, concluded that the explosion was caused by a drone manufactured in Iran, which other global powers have also accused of being involved in the attack, though Tehran denies it.
