Israeli strikes target Iranian oil destined for Syria

Some of the naval attacks have also targeted Iranian efforts to move other goods, including weapons to the region, according to U.S. officials.

Attacks on oil tankers carrying Iranian oil have not been previously reported. Iranian officials have reported some of the previous attacks and said they suspect Israeli involvement.

Israel has not previously commented on these incidents and the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred questions to the Israeli army, which declined to comment on any Israeli role in the attacks on 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 of Syrians. Syria and Iran have refused to fund terrorism and say their alliance aims to fight the crime.

The dissemination of the Israeli campaign at sea marks a new dimension in his campaign to counter Iran’s military and economic strengthening and its support for allied groups in the region. Since 2018, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes, mainly in Syria, to route groups, weapons and influence backed by Iran across the region.

The disclosure also comes amid escalating tensions in the region and when the Biden administration considers its approach to confront Iran. The administration has said it wants to return to the 2015 international agreement on Iran’s nuclear program, but progress has stalled on the demands of each party’s concessions to the other.

Iranian oil cargoes heading to Syria are controlled by officials of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to the United States, in court cases filed to confiscate ships. The purpose of the Iranian operations is to evade sanctions against Iran and Syria to fund IRGC, according to these court cases. These tankers typically carry oil for hundreds of millions of dollars.

Shippers often declare false destinations, use old, rusty tankers to avoid warning, and sometimes transfer 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. Last week, Mr Netanyahu blamed Iran for an explosion that wrecked the MV Helios Ray, an Israeli-owned cargo ship. The Iranian Foreign Ministry denied that he was behind the attack.

U.S. officials blamed Iran for a series of 2019 attacks on oil tankers in the Persian Gulf region, some using mines.

Israeli Environment Minister Gila Gamliel also accused Tehran of being behind Israel’s biggest ecological disaster, an oil spill of hundreds of tons of tar that covered the Israeli coast of more than 100 kilometers last month. Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Israel had no evidence to suggest that Iran deliberately caused the oil spill.

Experts say the series of attacks on Iranian oil tankers has stemmed from the international community’s perception of inaction, especially after Iran broke its promise not to deliver oil to Syria from a confiscated oil tanker.

Mark Dubowitz, chief executive of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a think tank that opposes the deal with Iran and urges a hard line against Tehran, said Israel and the United States have established for a long time its revenues from Iranian oil.

“Israel stepped up the game beyond sanctions for sabotage,” he said. “The sabotage of the Red Sea continues with a broader economic warfare campaign.”

Among the dozens of attacks on ships carrying Iranian oil are three such attacks in 2019, according to a shipping professional. The ships used by the Islamic Republic were attacked six times in 2020, according to a second maritime transport professional, in Tehran.

The second professional said Tehran has kept quiet about the attacks. “We’re trying to keep a low profile,” he said. “It would seem a sign of weakness” if Iran complained and did not react with a military response, he said.

In an episode last month, alleged Israeli agents connected a carpet mine to attack an Iranian ship while anchoring near Lebanon to deliver oil from Iran to Syria, according to the first shipping professional. The Israeli military declined to comment on the incident.

Limpet mines are usually secretly attached to the hulls of port ships and detonated later, making holes in the sides of ships.

On Thursday, a Telegram messaging channel near the Iranian navy posted images purporting to show a fire aboard an Iranian-contained ship, the Shahr e Kord, near Latakia, Syria. It was said that the ship had been attacked by missiles. It was not possible to determine whether the incident was related to other attacks on Iranian ships.

The attacks attributed to the Israelis have not resulted in the notification of any sunken ships, but the detonations have forced at least two ships to return to the port of Iran, thus delaying the delivery of fuel on board to Syria, according to professionals. Iranian shipping.

U.S. officials provided tacit support from the United States during the Trump administration for these attacks, according to a person familiar with the matter. The two countries have maintained a long-running intelligence exchange relationship and the US has supported previous Israeli strikes in Syria.

At the very least, there is no indication that the U.S. is getting in the way of Israel, analysts said.

“As long as he [Biden] the administration believes that Israelis are staying below the threshold of a major escalation or conflict, I don’t think they are interfering in the things Israel believes it needs to do to protect itself, ”said Ilan Goldenberg, lead member of the Center for New American Security in Washington.

Jake Sullivan, the White House’s national security adviser, met virtually Thursday with Israeli national security adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat to discuss a number of issues, with issues related to Iran as the central axis of their discussions, officials said.

Write to Gordon Lubold to [email protected] and Benoit Faucon to [email protected]