Iran advises against pursuing ships that may be involved in espionage activities

JERUSALEM: Just after the US and the UK began a large bombing campaign against Yemen’s Houthi rebels, Iran warned the US on Sunday that it may attack two cargo ships in West Asia that have long been suspected of acting as offshore operational bases for Iranian commandos.

Iran’s statement on the Behshad and Saviz ships seemed to indicate Tehran’s growing disquiet over US bombings that have been taking place in recent days in Yemen, Syria, and Iraq, which are aimed at militias supported by the Islamic Republic. The US Treasury has sanctioned a Tehran-based corporation that is a front for the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, and that firm is the registered owner of the commercial cargo ships Behshad and Saviz.
Long-term residents of the Red Sea off Yemen, the Saviz and subsequently the Behshad, are thought to have been acting as spies for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard paramilitary group. Saudi Arabia defined the Saviz in 2017 as a naval facility and a transshipment hub for Guard weaponry, staffed by personnel dressed in fatigues.
For the first time, a narrator refers to the ships as “floating armies” in the video statement released by the Iranian regular army on Sunday. The Behshad is helping an Iranian effort to “counteract piracy in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden,” according to the narrator. Iran, on the other hand, is not known to have participated in any of the recent actions in the area to combat the burgeoning Somali piracy.
The Behshad headed south into the Gulf of Aden just before the US launched its current campaign of attacks. It is now moored in East Africa’s Djibouti.
A warning is given at the conclusion of the message, followed by a montage of US warships and the American flag. As to the film, “terrorists targeting Behshad or comparable vessels endanger international maritime routes, security, and bear worldwide accountability for possible future international hazards.”
On the danger, the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, stationed in the Middle East, remained silent.