Iranian forces seize ship linked to Israeli businessman in Strait of Hormuz

Members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard on Saturday seized the MSC Aries, a container ship flying a Portuguese flag and owned by a subsidiary of Zodiac Maritime, one of the world’s main maritime companies, in the Strait of Hormuz. Members of the Iranian paramilitary organization rappelled down from a helicopter. The vessel is partially owned by Eyal Ofer, an Israeli businessman whose ships have been attacked in the past, Iran’s state news agency Irna has confirmed.

The attack on the ship, which Iranian forces are taking to the their country, is taking place amid heightened tension over Tehran’s announced revenge for the murder of 13 people (including several senior officers of the Revolutionary Guard) in an Israeli bombing of a consular building in Damascus, Syria. This past Tuesday, the head of the Revolutionary Guard naval force, Alireza Tangsiri, warned about the possibility of closing down the Strait of Hormuz, an important maritime passageway between Iran, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

Israeli diplomacy has reacted, urging the European Union to “immediately declare the Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization and sanction Iran,” because the ship had the flag of one of its member states. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Iran “is a criminal regime that supports Hamas’ crimes and is now conducting a pirate operation in violation of international law.” Just after the first news of the cargo ship emerged, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari issued a statement warning Iran that it “will bear the consequences of choosing to escalate this situation further.”

The Saudi television channel Al Arabiya has broadcast a video in which people are seen lowering onto the ship with a rope from a helicopter. Shortly before, the British Navy had indicated that a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz had been seized northeast of the port city of Fujairah, in the United Arab Emirates, “by regional authorities,” without specifying which. The Iranian state agency has noted that “details related to the seizure of the vessel will be announced later.”

Zodiac Maritime has released a statement in which it indicates that the ship belongs to one of its subsidiaries, Gortal Shipping Incas, which had it “long-term leased” to Mediterranean Shipping Company, the largest container shipping company and which was in charge of “all activities, including freight operations and maintenance” of the ship.

“Buying time”

Rouzbeh Parsi, head of the Middle East and North Africa program at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs think tank, believes that, for Iran, capturing this ship “is a way of doing something that is not serious enough to legitimize retaliation by Israel that would escalate the conflict. My prediction is that, with this limited-scope act, Iran intends to avoid this Israeli retaliation, but it is unpredictable whether or not this will deter Israel from responding. I doubt that this is all that Iran is going to do, but it does help it buy time,” he explains.

On Friday, with oil prices at their highest, more Western countries raised the alert level for travel to Israel and more airlines began avoiding flying over the Middle East. U.S. President Joe Biden noted that he expected Iran to retaliate against Israel “sooner rather than later.” Asked what his message to Tehran was, he responded only: “Don’t.” A day later, The Washington Post revealed that the Pentagon has sent more warships and planes to the area with the goal of strengthening deterrence efforts and increase the protection of American forces, according to a defense official cited by the newspaper on condition of anonymity.

In this context, the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday announced the closure of its embassy in Tehran “as a precaution.” And KLM, the country’s division of the Air France-KLM group, will stop flying over Israel and Iran for the same reason, although it will maintain the route to Ben Gurion airport, near Tel Aviv, which is still considered safe. Lufthansa and its subsidiary Austrian Airlines, the only two Western companies with routes to Tehran, have stopped flying over Iran these days.

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