Iran seizes Israel-linked cargo ship as world braces for revenge attack

Iranian forces seized an Israeli-linked cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, as the world braced for Tehran’s feared retaliation for a deadly Israeli strike on its consulate.

Commandos from Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard dropped from a helicopter onto the MSC Aries, a container vessel associated with Zodiac Maritime, run by Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer.

Iran said the vessel would be taken into Iranian territorial waters, though it has not explained the incident.

US president Joe Biden returned to Washington on Saturday afternoon to consult with his national security team a day after saying that he expects an Iranian attack against Israel “sooner, rather than later.” Asked by reporters for his message to Iran about a possible attack, Biden replied: “Don’t.”

The anticipated attack would be retaliation for an Israeli strike earlier this month on an Iranian consular building in Syria that killed 12 people, including a senior Guard general who once commanded its expeditionary Quds Force there.

Israel placed its armed forces on full alert, and has called off school trips and other youth activities planned for the coming days, the beginning of the Passover festival.

Biden on Friday said the United States was «devoted» to defending Israel and that «Iran will not succeed.»

Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza is now six months old and is inflaming decades-old tensions across the whole region.

With Iranian-backed forces such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Yemen’s Houthi rebels also involved in the fighting, any new attack in the Middle East threatens to escalate that conflict into a wider regional war.

Video of the ship seizure, showed Iranian commandos rappelling down o to a stack of containers on the deck of the