IDF’s Conricus tells Newsmax: Iranian Proxy Likely Responsible for Ships’ Attacks

Israel is still working to confirm details on the attacks Sunday on the USS Carney and multiple commercial ships in the Red Sea, but “if it is what we think it is, then it is another attack by another Iranian proxy on world order, on free nations, on global economic shipping lines, and of course on U.S. troops,” and it doesn’t come as a surprise, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, said on Newsmax. 

“We’ve seen this all over the Middle East,” Conricus told Newsmax’s “Sunday Agenda.” “We’re at the brunt of it in Israel. We have all of these Iranian proxies along our borders that we have been fighting for quite a while now and what’s happening over the last almost two months is that that circle of Iranian fire is expanding into other areas of the Middle East.”

He added that he thinks that attacks on the ships, located close to Yemen, mark “another escalation and an expansion by Iranian proxy, this time against global maritime shipping and apparently against U.S. troops.”

Houthi rebels later claimed they attacked two ships that they said were linked to Israel but wouldn’t admit to targeting the U.S. Navy vessel. 

When Conricus was asked if he thinks the strikes and other incidents mean the potential of a “World War Three,” he commented that he hopes not. 

“I would hope that this would be contained to just the Middle East,” he said. “We sure wouldn’t want anybody else to be affected by this. I think it’s bad enough that we are facing the atrocities that we faced for the last almost two months.”

Israel is fighting Hamas in its south and Hezbollah in the north, Conricus added, and “we’re hoping that we’ll be able to contain it there.”

However, if more is forced on Israel, “we will have to expand our defense in other places as well, but I definitely hope that won’t be the case,” he said. 

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Israel is planning to establish a buffer zone inside Gaza. 

The Biden administration is opposed to that, saying that Gaza must remain Palestinian without reductions, but Conricus said Sunday the administration has “been very straightforward in its unlimited support toward Israel, including after the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7. 

“There’s of course, a very intimate dialogue between Israeli seniors and their U. S counterparts,” he said. I suppose this is part of it,” he added. 

However, Israel is adamant that it will do what it needs to prevent another Oct. 7, said Conricus, “whether it is our operations now inside the Gaza Strip or any measures that will be taken in the future.”

“It’s all with the aim of protecting Israeli lives and making sure that we can go back to living in our sovereign country, the state of Israel, after this war is over,” he said. “That’s the focus of where we are and hopefully that will travel across the Atlantic and be understood there as well.”

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