U.S. And U.K. Did Not Give Israel a Green Light to Retaliate Against Iran
The Claim
Both the U.S. and the U.K. have approved Israel to retaliate against Iran after the country drone allegedly bombed an Israeli tanker.
News posted on
Emerging story
On July 29th, 2021, a drone strike hit an oil tanker off the coast of Oman, killing two of its crew, according to U.S. Navy officials. In the days following the news, reports stated that the U.S. and the U.K had accused Iran of the attack.
Shortly after, a number of questionable news reports and social media users began claiming that the U.S. and the U.K. had given Israel the approval to retaliate against Iran, with some claiming that this response would likely take the form of military action. These social media posts have gained dozens and, in some cases, hundreds of interactions.
Misbar’s Analysis
MENA: Misbar’s investigation could find no quality source that confirmed that the U.S. or the U.K. had given Israel approval to retaliate against Iran, militarily or otherwise. Instead, reporting from credible sources has stated that the U.K. and Israel were planning to discuss the issue with the United Nations Security Council. More recently, the Wall Street Journal reported that “neither the U.S. nor its European allies have hinted whether they would use military action, sanctions or other measures.”
The New York Times reported that Israel’s foreign minister had spoken to Dominic Raab, the U.K.’s foreign secretary, shortly after the attack. The Israeli foreign minister stated the need for a severe reaction to the attack. But the source does not state that the foreign minister had approved such actions.
Yahoo noted that the U.S. Secretary of State said that the nation was working on an appropriate response to the incident and that he was working with allies to decide upon what this response would be. However, he did not state that he had approved a retaliation via Israel.
The closest statement that we could find of any official urging military intervention comes from General Nick Carter, who is the U.K.’s top military commander. However, in his call for retaliation, he did not state that the U.K. nor the U.S. had green-lighted an Israeli response to the attack.
A number of social media users have claimed that the news of the “green light” for Israel to retaliate against Iran came from the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida. However, we could identify no article on the newspaper’s website or any link from a third party to an Al-Jarida article that claims this.
