At least three ships have been attacked by the this Wednesday. Two of them have been redirected to Iranian ports for trying to cross the Strait of Hormuz without permission from the authorities of the Islamic Republic. The new escalation seems, to a large extent, a retaliation to similar operations by the US Navy, which in recent days .
He reported that two container ships were shot at in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz, although their crews were not harmed. In the first case, the captain of the vessel – flying the Lebanese flag and operated by a Greek shipping company – claimed that a Revolutionary Guard gunboat opened fire without radio warning and caused “severe damage” to the ship’s bridge, although there were no fatalities or injuries.
Both the Reuters agency and the BBC, both British, have reported, citing maritime sources, of a third ship also attacked in Hormuz. The price of oil has responded to the news, which narrows the negotiation options between Tehran and Washington, with a new rise. It is located,
The commanders of the Revolutionary Guard Navy explained in a statement that two of the attacked ships have been “intercepted and escorted to the Iranian coast” for having “endangered maritime security by sailing without the necessary authorization and by manipulating their navigation systems,” and now “their cargo and documents” will be inspected.
The Iranian military identifies two of the attacked ships as the Epaminondasflagged Liberian and operated by the Greek shipping company Technomar, and the MSC Francescawhom he accuses of being “linked to the Zionist regime.” The latter belongs to the Italian-Swiss giant MSC, which handles a fifth of global shipping and whose ships have previously been attacked by Iran or groups linked to the ayatollah regime, alleging that some of the vessels it uses are owned by Israeli shipowners.
According to the BBC, the Epaminondas and the MSC Francesca They were part of a convoy of half a dozen ships operated by MSC, of which four have managed to transit Hormuz and are already sailing towards the Indian Ocean. The third vessel attacked has been identified as the container ship Euphoria, operated by an Emirati shipping company, and on which the Iranian authorities have not commented.
However, a spokesperson for the Ministry of the Merchant Marine assured the EFE Agency that the Epaminondas “he has neither been arrested nor seized” and that the damages suffered are “minor.” On Wednesday afternoon, the MarineTraffic tracking platform placed it next to the MSC Francescaboth motionless, about 15 kilometers from the Iranian coast, although later the Greek ship began to sail in a northwesterly direction within the strait.
If the seizure is confirmed, they would be the first commercial vessels captured by Iran since the start of the war, which adds a new factor of tension at a time when the possibility of new negotiations hangs by a thread. As if that were not enough, the Tasnim news agency, linked to the Revolutionary Guard, raised the possibility that the submarine cables that cross the Strait of Hormuz could suffer “simultaneous damage”, either “by accidents or deliberate actions”, which could trigger blackouts throughout the Persian Gulf region.
Since the US naval blockade began on April 13, 28 ships linked to Iran have been forced to turn around by US destroyers. In addition, two – the container ship Touska and the tanker Tiffany— have been boarded, the latter in the Bay of Bengal. Both are now being directed to a US allied port for inspection and eventual seizure.
Contradictory orders
Although President Donald Trump has described the operation as a “tremendous success,” the truth is that numerous ships have managed to circumvent the naval encirclement using According to the Financial Times, which cites data from the Vortexa firm, at least 19 tankers linked to Iran have managed to leave the Gulf of Oman towards the Indian Ocean and another 15 have entered. Of those that have left, at least half a dozen are loaded with an estimated amount of just over 10 million barrels of Iranian crude oil, with a value of about 775 million euros.
The ships attacked by Iran this Wednesday were also sailing with the AIS signal turned off, the maritime intelligence consultancy Windward has confirmed, adding that “these incidents further erode confidence in safe passage given the contradictory signals” that the Islamic Republic has sent in the last week regarding the passage of the strait.
Last Friday, after the achievement of a ceasefire in Lebanon, the Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Aragchi, followed by clarifying that transit would only be carried out on routes under the supervision of the Iranian authorities and with prior authorization from the Revolutionary Guard, that is, in the same way that had been done since the beginning of the war: allowing the passage only of ships from states considered “non-adversaries” or after payment of a toll.
The next day, however, the Revolutionary Guard announced a greater restriction of passage, which increased confusion and tension in a sea route that, before the war, allowed the exit of 20% of the world’s hydrocarbons to international markets. Since the weekend, Iranian authorities have repeated that they will not allow freedom of navigation through Hormuz — something guaranteed by international treaties — unless the United States lifts its own blockade, which they consider a violation of the truce. “Reopening the Strait of Hormuz is impossible in the face of such a flagrant breach of the ceasefire,” Mohamad Ghalibaf, an Iranian negotiator and speaker of parliament, said Wednesday.
“The Iranian decision-making process regarding the strait cannot be attributed to a single, clearly identifiable command center that expresses a stable position,” explains the maritime risk analysis company MARISKS in statements to EL PAÍS. Competition between “multiple centers of power”, from Government ministers, to the President of Parliament, the Supreme Leader or the various armed forces generates “a changing and sometimes contradictory posture”, making it difficult for shipping companies to make decisions about whether to transit the strait, especially for those whose ships .
Cryptostatas
On Friday and Saturday, around thirty ships tried to undertake the passage but at least four reported attacks or warning shots, which caused the majority to turn around. A convoy of three cruise ships, two from the tour operator TUI and another from MSC, crossed Hormuz “in coordination with the authorities,” according to an MSC spokesperson. However, according to the German press, the My ship 4 He was threatened by radio from a Revolutionary Guard boat: “We will shoot and sink you.” Presumably, there were warning shots although, finally, the ships were able to leave the area, where they had been held since the beginning of the war, which has forced the cancellation of several routes that these cruises had planned in other areas of the world.
A French container ship also claimed to have been the target of “a projectile of unknown origin” over the weekend and two Indian ships were fired upon by the Revolutionary Guard, prompting the Indian government to summon the Iranian ambassador to deliver a note of protest, according to the newspaper. India Today.
The most curious case is that of the Indian oil tanker Sanmar Herald, who had to turn around in the Strait of Hormuz after being shot at by two gunboats of the Revolutionary Guard. In a radio message ——, the ship’s captain, in an alarmed voice, asks the Revolutionary Guard to let him pass. “You have given me authorization!” he shouts. The confusion is due, according to several media outlets, because the shipping company could have been the target of a scam and had received an alleged passage permit from scammers after paying a toll. The shipping company, however, has denied having been the subject of a scam and, in statements to the BBC, assured that it is working together with the Indian Government to guarantee that its ship can leave Hormuz.
On Monday, the risk analysis company MARISKS sent its clients an alert warning that “unknown actors” claiming to represent the Iranian authorities have sent shipping companies a message demanding payment of tolls in cryptocurrencies in exchange for “passage authorization.” “After you submit the documentation and the Iranian security services evaluate your eligibility, we will be able to determine the fee to be paid in cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin or Tether). Only then will your vessel be able to transit through the strait without impediments within the agreed period,” reads the message sent to the shipping companies.
Once the Iranian blockade of Hormuz began, several reports indicated that the Iranian authorities had begun to demand the payment of tolls of up to two million dollars per ship; However, these new messages, warns MARISKS, “are a scam” and are not sent by the Iranian authorities.
