Some days ago the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley visited Israel for a few hours and met with Defense Minister Benny Gantz, chief of staff Aviv Kochavi and Mossad Director Yossi Cohen speaking also to PM Netanyahu by video.
The visit took place in the context of “confronting Iran and its allies in the Middle East, especially the threat posed by the Lebanese Hezbollah”.
The last time Gen. Millev visited Israel was before the assassination of Iranian Gen. Soleimani.
It is worthy to remind also that a very similar incident happened in Cyprus some years ago. In 2009, a ship carrying explosives from Iran to Syria was arrested by US Navy in the Red Sea. Americans imposed even sanctions to Iran because of it, but they let the ship continue its trip. It passed through the Suez Canal, without anybody annoying it, and when it was near Cyprus US authorities asked Nicosia to arrest it invoking international treaties. The explosives were stored in a base in Mari and two years later they exploded. The explosion was heard in all Cyprus, 13 people were killed and the economy of the island received a huge blow.
The then President Christofias received a huge political blow. He finished his tenure to power but he was rather unable to follow some of the policies he wanted. Christofias had reservations about the energy policy and aspects of the foreign policy of his predecessor.
Cypriot authorities attributed the explosion to an accident, due to bad maintenance of the explosives, but a Greek officer send to Cyprus to help has said it seemed like a sabotage. President Christofias himself expressed the belief it was a sabotage, speaking after his retirement.
Dimitris Konstantakopoulos
