Israeli strikes target Iranian oil linked to Syria

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

Attacks on oil tankers carrying Iranian oil have not been revealed before. Iranian officials reported some of the attacks earlier and said they suspected Israeli involvement.

Israel has not previously commented on such incidents, and the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sent questions to the Israeli military, which has declined to comment on any Israeli role in attacks on Iranian ships. Iranian officials from the country’s UN mission did not respond to a request for comment.

Damascus says disruptions in Iranian oil imports are causing shortages for Syrians. Syria and Iran have denied funding for terrorism and said their alliance is aimed at fighting the crime.

The unveiling of the Israeli campaign at sea marks a new dimension in its campaign to combat Iran’s military and economic roots and support for allied groups in the region. Since 2018, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes, mostly in Syria, to target Iranian-backed groups, weapons and influence throughout the region.

The revelation also comes amid escalating tensions in the region and as the Biden administration considers its approach to confronting Iran. The administration has said it wants to return to the 2015 international agreement on Iran’s nuclear program, but progress has stalled on each side’s requests for concessions from the other.

Iranian oil cargoes linked to Syria are controlled by officials of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to the USA, in the courts filed for confiscation of ships. The purpose of the Iranian operations is to evade the sanctions imposed on both Iran and Syria to finance the IRGC, these files say. Such tanks often carry hundreds of millions of dollars in oil.

Shippers often declare false destinations, use rusty old tanks to avoid notification, 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. Mr Netanyahu last week accused Iran of an explosion that tore apart MV Helios Ray, an Israeli-owned cargo ship. The Iranian Foreign Ministry has denied that it is behind the attack.

US officials have blamed Iran for a series of 2019 attacks on oil tanks in the Persian Gulf region, some using mines.

Israeli Environment Minister Gila Gamliel last week also accused Tehran of being behind Israel’s biggest ecological disaster, a hundreds of tons of tar spill that covered Israel’s more than 100-mile coastline last month. past. Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Israel has no evidence to suggest that Iran deliberately caused the oil spill.

Experts say the string of attacks on Iranian oil companies has resulted from inaction by the international community, especially after Iran broke its promise not to deliver oil to Syria from a confiscated oil tanker.

Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a think tank that opposes the deal with Iran and calls for a tough line against Tehran, said Israel and the United States have long focused on Iranian oil revenues.

“Israel has stepped up the game beyond sanctions to sabotage,” he said. “Red Sea sabotage is part of a broader economic warfare campaign.”

Among the twelve attacks on Iranian oil-carrying ships are three such strikes in 2019, according to a shipping professional. Ships used by the Islamic Republic have been targeted six times in 2020, according to a second shipping professional in Tehran.

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

In an episode last month, suspects of Israeli agents attached a ditch mine to attack an Iranian ship while anchoring near Lebanon to deliver Iranian oil 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 hull of ships in port and detonated later, blowing holes in the sides of ships.

On Thursday, a Telegram messaging channel near the Iranian navy posted images claiming to show a fire aboard an Iranian ship, Shahr e Kord, near Latakia, Syria. The ship was said to have been attacked by missiles. It has not been established whether the incident was linked to other strikes on Iranian ships.

The attacks attributed to the Israelis did not lead to reports of any sunken ships, but the detonations forced at least two ships to return to the port of Iran, thus delaying the delivery of fuel on board to Syria, say Iranian professionals.

US officials offered tacit US support during the Trump administration for such attacks, according to someone familiar with the matter. The two countries have had a long-standing information-sharing relationship, and the United States has supported previous Israeli strikes in Syria.

At least, there is no indication that the United States would stand in the way of Israel, analysts said.

“As long as [Biden] the administration believes that Israelis remain on the brink of major escalation or conflict, I don’t think they will stop the things Israel feels it needs to do to protect itself, “said Ilan Goldenberg, senior senior at the Center for New American Security in Washington.

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

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