Israel has never publicly accepted responsibility for these attacks against Iranian ships bound for Syria, but media reports and unofficial disclosures have essentially confirmed its role, and Iran’s hand in recent attacks against Israeli ships is clear as well. In response, Israel began a more concerted naval disruption campaign with apparent support from Western allies and, perhaps, Arab Gulf states. Yet Tehran’s desire to cement its military presence in Syria and its supply lines to Hezbollah led to more systematic illegal shipments of oil products, supplies, and, at times, arms. Of course, Iran had used ships to send weapons and ammunition to groups like Hezbollah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad long before 2019, with Israel seizing at least four of them between 20. The maritime front of this undeclared conflict has intensified since 2019 due in large part to an increase in Iran’s illicit oil smuggling efforts, which are aimed at funding Lebanese Hezbollah, facilitating the foreign operations of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF), and propping up Syria’s Assad regime ( see Part 1 of this PolicyWatch for a fuller discussion of these smuggling networks). Together, the two attacks appear to be the latest ripostes in Iran and Israel’s long-running, low-intensity shadow war. A week earlier, explosions badly damaged the Saviz, a converted cargo ship that Iran permanently moored in the Red Sea to serve as a suspected intelligence collection outpost and floating armory. N April 13, explosions rocked the Israeli-owned car-carrier ship Hyperion Ray near Fujairah. In 2018, 21 million barrels per day of oil flowed through the Gulf’s Strait of Hormuz, equivalent to about 21% of global petroleum liquids demand at the time, according to the US Energy Information Administration.Although both sides have sought to keep their tit-for-tat maritime attacks under control, they pose a substantial risk of miscalculation and escalation that could jeopardize international shipping. In early January, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized a South Korean-flagged tanker in Gulf waters and detained its crew amid tensions between Tehran and US ally Seoul over Iranian funds frozen in South Korean banks due to US sanctions. Iran distanced itself from those attacks. Washington has blamed Iran for a number of attacks on shipping in strategic Gulf waters, including on four vessels, including two Saudi oil tankers, in May 2019. Tensions have risen in the Gulf region since the United States reimposed sanctions on Iran in 2018 after then-President Donald Trump withdrew Washington from Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with major powers. The US Navy’s Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet said it was aware of the incident and monitoring the situation. Refinitiv data shows the ship has set Dubai as its current destination. “Whilst details regarding the incident remain unclear it remains a realistic possibility that the event was the result of asymmetric activity by Iranian military,” Dryad said in a report on the incident. Stamco Ship Management declined to comment when contacted by phone by Reuters. The vessel is managed by Stamco Ship Management, Refinitiv ship tracking data showed. Maritime security firm Dryad Global said the ship was en route to Singapore. The incident occurred at 2040 GMT on Thursday, UKMTO said, but it gave no details about a possible cause. We have no idea whether this was an incident that was past of the tensions between Iran and the United States and whether there is a link to the fact the ship’s owner is Israeli,” Kan reported Ungar as having said. “There is no damage to the engine, and no casualties among the crew. Israel’s Kan broadcaster named the ship’s owner as Rami Ungar and quoted him as saying: “The damage is two holes, diameter approximately 1.5 meters, but it is not yet clear to us if this was caused by missile fire or mines that were attached to the ship. The US defense official told Reuters in Washington that the ship was hit by a blast above the water line that ripped holes in both sides of its hull. It urged vessels in the area to exercise caution. Vessel and crew are safe,” the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said in an advisory notice on Friday. The vehicle-carrier ship is owned by a Tel-Aviv based company called Ray Shipping through a company registered in the Isle of Man, according to a UN shipping database. An Israeli-owned ship, the MV HELIOS RAY, was hit by an explosion in the Gulf of Oman overnight Thursday and a US defense official said the blast left holes in both sides of the vessel’s hull.
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