Iranian Spy Ship Commands Strategic Position on Vital Oil Route
The Red Sea forms a physical and geopolitical choke point on much of the world’s trade. At its northern end the Suez Canal constricts the flow of ships, and at the southern end the Bab el-Mandeb Strait does. Millions of barrels of oil and other critically important goods transit the Red Sea every year, much of it destined for North America and Europe.
It is also a long-standing potential flashpoint. Innocent
shipping is exposed to terrorist attacks, covert military action by state
actors and the lingering threat of piracy. And watching every vessel that
passes is an Iranian ship.
Officially Saviz is a merchant ship, but it is most likely a
covert Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forward base. Several
open-source reports over the last several years and officials with Saudi Arabia
have accused the ship of being operated by the IRGC.
The naval role of ships like the Saviz is hard to prove with
open sources, but the inference is clear. There is no legitimate civilian
explanation for the action, and uniformed men have been seen onboard. On the
ship’s deck are Boston Whaler type launches, a boat type popular with the IRGC
and not in keeping with Saviz’s civilian design.
The ship is anchored off the Yemen coast at the southern end
of the Red Sea, near to where Bab el-Mandeb Strait forms a natural choke point.
Automated Information System transmissions and analysis of commercial satellite
images show the ship has barely moved in the past three years. From its
position, the ship can provide constant surveillance of maritime traffic. The
narrow waterway just south of its position squeezes tankers to a channel just a
couple of miles wide. There have been numerous attacks on tankers in the area.
Some attacks can be tied to the civil war in Yemen, where
Iran is backing and supplying Houthi forces. In 2018, two Saudi tankers were
attacked near Bab el-Mandeb, apparently by the Houthis. This caused the oil
company, Saudi Aramco, to temporarily halt shipments through the strait. The
Saudis may have foiled another attack in March this year. And previously, in
October 2016, the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Mason (DDG-87) had to fire
Standard Missile -2 and Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles to intercept missiles
fired at it and the afloat forward staging base USS Ponce.
Saviz was in a position to play a role in some of the
attacks, feeding intelligence to Iran and its Houthi allies in Yemen, Saudi’s
have said. The Houthis are fighting a civil war against Saudi and United Arab
Emirates-backed forces. The Houthis have acquired a range of sea mines, anti-ship
missiles and remote-controlled explosive boats. Iran’s hand in supplying
knowledge, parts and whole systems to the Houthi’s is documented.
The IRGC themselves are also suspected of conducting attacks
on tankers in the region. They are accused of placing limpet mines on two
tankers in the Gulf of Oman on June 13, 2019. And they have seized tankers for
political reasons. In July 2019, they took the British flagged tanker Stena
Impero in the Strait of Hormuz, seemingly as retaliation for Britain seizing an
Iranian tanker attempting to supply oil to Syria.
Meanwhile, Iranian tankers continue to supply oil to Syria.
They sail past the Saviz and up to the Suez Canal, after which they are
escorted by Russian warships. Saviz position again may play a role in
protecting their tankers as they pass through the Red Sea.
Saviz will likely remain in place for the foreseeable
future, hiding behind its civilian identity. From there the ship can provide
Iran and its allies with real-time intelligence on every tanker, merchant
vessel and warship which passes.
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