Defense Minister Benny Gantz accused Iran on Sunday of providing foreign militias with drone training at an airbase near the city of Isfahan in the center of the country, a month after Tehran came under global scrutiny over a suspected drone attack on an Israeli-managed tanker off Oman.
Israel has combined military strikes with diplomatic pressure to beat back what it describes as an effort by its arch-foe, whose nuclear negotiations with the West are deadlocked, to beef up regional clout through allied guerrillas.
4 View gallery
Visuals of the Kashan airbase in Iran where Defense Minister Benny Gantz claimed Iranian proxies were trained in the use of drones
(Photo: Go-Live)
In what his office described as a new disclosure, Gantz said Iran was using Kashan airbase north of Isfahan to train "terror operatives from Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon in flying Iranian-made UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles)".
4 View gallery
Defense Minister Benny Gantz speaking at a counter-terrorism conference at Reichman University near Tel Aviv
(Photo: Moti Kimchi)
Iran was also trying to "transfer know-how that would allow the manufacturing of UAVs in the Gaza Strip," on Israel's southern border, Gantz told a counter-terrorism conference at Reichman University near Tel Aviv.
His office provided what it said were satellite images showing UAVs on the runways at Kashan. There was no immediate comment from Iran.
4 View gallery
Visuals presented by Defense Minister Benny Gantz at anti-terrorism conference on Sunday
(Photo: Go-Live)
A July 29 blast aboard the Mercer Street, a Liberian-flagged, Japanese-owned petroleum product tanker managed by Israeli-owned Zodiac Maritime, near the mouth of the Gulf, a key oil shipping route, killed two crew - a Briton and a Romanian.
The U.S. military said explosives experts from the Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier - which deployed to assist the Mercer Street - concluded the explosion was from a drone produced in Iran, which was accused by other world powers in the attack.
4 View gallery
The Israeli-owned Mercer Street damaged in a drone strike attributed to Iran near the Gulf of Oman
(Photo: AFP)
Iran has denied involvement.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett meanwhile, said on Sunday that two reports issued recently by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) prove Iran continues its efforts to obtain nuclear weapons.
Speaking at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting, the prime minister said the world simply chooses to ignore said reports.