Above photo: Tankers depicted in the Strait of Hormuz — a strategically important waterway which separates Iran, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Atta Kenare | AFP | Getty Images.
Israeli-linked ships have reportedly been using a sea-to-land corridor that crosses several Gulf countries.
To bypass the trade damage done by Yemeni attacks in the Red Sea.
Update:
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency reported on 13 April that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) navy seized an Israeli-linked cargo ship in the Persian Gulf region.
Earlier, AP reported that a regional defense official shared with them a video of the attack, which targeted the Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries, a container ship owned by Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer’s Zodiac Group.
The MSC Aries had been last located off Dubai, heading toward the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, and had turned off its tracking data, a practice common for Israeli ships in the region.
Since November, the Ansarallah-led Yemeni armed forces have targeted Israeli-linked ships in the Red Sea in response to Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Iran and Yemen are close allies.
Friday’s ship seizure had previously been reported by the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations. The report said only that a ship was being “seized by regional authorities” in the Gulf of Oman off the Emirati port city of Fujairah.
The seizure comes as fears grow in Israel and the US over Iran’s retaliation for the bombing of the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria. Israel killed a top Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) commander and several others in the strike.
The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow channel in the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil passes. Fujairah, on the UAE’s eastern coast in the Gulf of Oman, is the region’s main port.
The UAE plays a crucial role in US and Israeli plans to establish the India Middle East Europe Economic Corridors (IMEC), a ship-to-rail transit network that could compete with China’s Belt and Road project to ship goods from Asia to Europe.
Iranian targeting of commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman could disrupt the establishment of the IMEC project.