Lloyds’ List: ‘Israel’s secret attacks on Iran's tankers not a threat to shipping, say experts’
Iranian oil supertankers anchored at the Bandar Abbas Anchorage, in the Straits of Hormuz. Image: Barry Iversen / Alamy
Lloyds’ List’s Declan Bush has interviewed CEO Hans Tino Hansen for a comment on a report by the Wall Street Journal that Israel has bombed or mined Iranian tankers carrying oil bound for Syria since late 2019 amid continued geopolitical tensions. The report claimed that Iran kept quiet about the attacks to save face, and that the US knew or implicitly consented to the attacks.
12 March 2021
In the article, Declan Bush writes:
“A report that Israel has mounted covert attacks on Iranian tankers carrying oil to Syria will not increase the low risk to general shipping in the Middle East, according to security experts. Israel has targeted “at least a dozen vessels” - three in 2019 and six in the past year - out of concern oil profits were funding extremism, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unidentified US officials and Iranian shipping sources.
The newspaper report did not offer evidence or identify the ships said to be attacked. Israel and the US declined to comment and Israel’s Defence Ministry and the US State Department did not respond to requests for comment by Lloyd’s List. The WSJ report claimed Israel has used weapons, including sea mines, to strike Iranian vessels or those carrying Iranian cargo towards Syria in the Red Sea in the face of US sanctions.
The Lloyds’ List writer interviewed a number of security specialists, including CEO of Risk Intelligence Hans Tino Hansen, and writes that: “Security consultants said the action reported by the newspaper fits the pattern of tit-for-tat, limited strikes meant to create political pressure in the proxy conflicts between Israel, Iran and Saudi Arabia.”
The consultants interviewed for the article mostly concluded that risk to vessels transiting the Middle East remains low. However, Hans Tino Hansen’s nuanced ranking of the threat to vessels in the Middle East, from highest to lowest, offers more accurate guidance:
”Vessels directly supporting the Saudi war in Yemen from Houthi attacks,
Israeli or Iranian ships, targeted directly or indirectly,
Saudi and UAE vessels, primarily tankers targeted by the Houthis,
Tankers from other countries moving Saudi or UAE oil and gas,
Other international vessels “in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
The article can be read in its entirety here: Israel’s ‘secret attack’ on Iran’s tankers not a threat to shipping, say experts (Paywall)
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