WASHINGTON – Israel has targeted at least a dozen ships targeting Syria primarily carrying Iranian oil out of concern that the oil gains are funding extremism in the Middle East, US and regional officials say, on a new front in the Israel-Iran conflict.
Since late 2019, Israel has used weapons, including water mines, to attack Iranian ships or those carrying Iranian cargo while sailing to Syria in the Red Sea and other parts of the region. Iran has continued its oil trade with Syria, shipping millions of barrels, and violating US sanctions on Iran and international sanctions on Syria.
Some of the naval attacks also targeted Iranian efforts to move other cargo, including weapons, across the region, US officials said.
The attacks on the tankers with Iranian oil have not been disclosed before. Iranian officials have previously reported some of the attacks and have said they suspect Israeli involvement.
Israel has not commented on such incidents before, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office referred questions to the Israeli military, which declined to comment on Israel’s role in the attacks on the Iranian ships. Iranian officials from the country’s UN mission did not respond to a request for comment.
Damascus has said disruptions to Iranian oil imports are causing shortages for Syrians. Syria and Iran have denied funding for terrorism, saying their alliance is aimed at fighting such crime.
The disclosure of the Israeli naval campaign marks a new dimension in its campaign to counter Iran’s military and economic entrenchment and support for allied groups in the region. Since 2018, Israel has conducted hundreds of airstrikes, mainly in Syria, to divert Iranian-backed groups, weapons and influence across the region.
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The revelation also comes amid escalating tensions in the region and as the Biden administration is considering its approach to confront Iran. The government has said it wants to return to the 2015 international agreement on Iran’s nuclear program, but progress has stalled against both sides’ demands for concessions by the other.
Iran’s Syrian-linked oil charges are controlled by officials of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the US has filed lawsuits to seize the ships. The purpose of the Iranian operations is to bypass sanctions against both Iran and Syria to fund IRGC, these lawsuits say. Such tankers often carry hundreds of millions of dollars worth of oil on board.
The National Iranian Oil Tanker Company says this undated image shows one of its tankers sailing in the Red Sea.
Photo:
wana news agency / Reuters
Shippers often declare false destinations, use old, rusted tankers to avoid being spotted, and sometimes carry oil from one ship to another at sea to avoid detection, regional military officials said.
Israel has also publicly accused Iran of subterfuge and sabotage in recent weeks. Mr Netanyahu blamed Iran last week for an explosion that ripped through the MV Helios Ray, an Israeli-owned cargo ship. Iran’s Foreign Ministry denied that it was behind the attack.
US officials blamed Iran for a series of attacks in 2019 on tankers in the Persian Gulf region, some of which used mines.
Israeli environmental protection minister Gila Gamliel last week also accused Tehran of being behind Israel’s greatest ecological disaster ever, a spill of hundreds of tons of tar that covered Israel’s 100 miles plus coastline last month. Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Israel had no evidence to suggest that Iran intentionally caused the oil spill.
Experts say the series of attacks on Iranian tankers stemmed from the alleged inactivity of the international community, especially after Iran broke a pledge not to supply oil to Syria from a seized tanker.
“Israel has stepped up the game and gone beyond sanctions against sabotage.”
Mark Dubowitz, chief executive of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a think tank opposed to the deal with Iran and pushing for a hardline against Tehran, said Israel and the US have long set their sights on Iranian oil revenues.
Israel has stepped up the game and went beyond sanctions for sabotage, he said. “The Red Sea sabotage is part of a broader economic war campaign.”
Among the dozens of attacks on ships carrying Iranian oil, one shipping professional said three such attacks were in 2019. According to a second shipping professional in Tehran, six times were targeted by ships used by the Islamic Republic in 2020.
The second professional said Tehran has kept quiet about the attacks. “We try to keep ourselves down,” he said. “It would appear to be a sign of weakness” if Iran complained and did not respond with a military response, he said.
In an episode last month, suspected Israeli agents attached a limpet mine to attack an Iranian ship while anchored near Lebanon to deliver Iran oil to Syria, the first shipping professional said. The Israeli military declined to comment on the incident.
Limpet mines are usually secretly attached to the hulls of ships in port and later detonated, blowing holes in the sides of the ships.
The first known military action by the Biden administration was an air raid on facilities used by Iranian-backed militias in response to previous attacks on US forces. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he was confident the US had achieved its goal. (First published 2/26/2021) Photo: Alex Brandon / Associated Press
On Thursday, a Telegram messaging channel close to the Iranian navy posted photos claiming to show a fire aboard an Iranian ship, the Shahr e Kord, near Latakia, Syria. It said the ship had been attacked by missiles. It could not be determined whether the incident was related to other attacks on Iranian ships.
The attacks attributed to the Israelis have not resulted in reports of sunken ships, but the blasts have required at least two ships to return to port in Iran, delaying delivery of the onboard fuel to Syria, Iranian shipping professionals say.
According to a person familiar with the case, US officials have tacitly supported such attacks during the Trump administration. The two countries have had a long-standing intelligence-sharing relationship, and the US has backed previous Israeli attacks in Syria.
At the very least, according to analysts, there is no indication that the US would get in the way of Israel.
“As long as the [Biden] government believes Israelis remain below the threshold of major escalation or conflict, I don’t think they will get in the way of things Israel thinks it needs to do to protect itself, ”said Ilan Goldenberg, a senior fellow at the Center for New American Security in Washington.
Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, met with Israeli national security adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat almost Thursday to discuss a range of issues, with issues related to Iran at the center of their discussions, officials said.
Write to Gordon Lubold at [email protected] and Benoit Faucon at [email protected]
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