Iranian drone attacks pose major threat to international shipping lanes

A drone attack earlier this month on an Israeli-linked oil tanker in the Arabian Sea signals an intensification of Tehran's threatening actions against shipping in the region, observers say.

The Liberian-flagged Campo Square was hit in ballast transit on February 10 by an airborne object 300 nautical miles off the coasts of India and Oman, vessel operator Eletson said in a February 17 statement.

The tanker, linked to an Israeli billionaire, sustained minor damage, but there were no casualties, the company said.

A US military source said the attack likely involved a Shahed-136 drone, one of the Iranian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) Russia has been using in its invasion of Ukraine.

A similar drone attack last November hit a tanker operated by an Israeli-owned firm carrying gas oil off the coast of Oman.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) commander Gen. Michael "Erik" Kurilla said the attack "against a civilian vessel in this critical maritime strait demonstrates, once again, the destabilising nature of Iranian malign activity in the region".

Clear evidence also proves Iran's hand behind the 2021 drone attack on the Mercer Street tanker in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Oman.

Such attacks, usually carried out by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), cause major disruptions in Gulf waters that are a major route for world energy supplies.

Attacks on international shipping in strategic waterways such as the Gulf waters have wide-ranging consequences, said Rashid Mohammed al-Marri, a former officer with the Dubai police anti-narcotics department.

These waters are of strategic importance not only to the Gulf and Arab region, but to the whole world, as they have become a key route for international trade, he told Al-Mashareq.

Iranian attacks in the waterways of the Middle East and elsewhere in the region "have the attention of everyone" as tensions rise over Tehran's advancing nuclear programme, the commander of the US Navy's 5th Fleet, Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, said on February 21.

Concerns about Iran's destabilising actions have grown in recent months as Tehran continues to enrich uranium closer to weapon-grade levels and reportedly has enough fissile material for several nuclear bombs.

On February 19, Bloomberg News reported that International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors have detected uranium particles enriched up to 84% purity in Iran's enrichment facilities, close to the 90% threshold required to produce an atomic bomb.

Cooper told The Associated Press he has seen a rise in what he described as Iran's "malign activities" in the region over his two years leading the Bahrain-based 5th Fleet.

"We're focused on expanding our partnerships," Cooper said on the sidelines of Abu Dhabi's International Defence Exhibition and Conference. "The short answer is the Iranian actions have the attention of everyone."

Drones are not the issue as IRGC Navy patrols also routinely threaten oil vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, and behave erratically and unprofessionally with foreign military vessels in the region.

Drones and proxies

The 5th Fleet patrols the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil output transits. Its region also stretches as far as the Red Sea up to the Suez Canal and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait off Yemen.

Under Cooper's command, the 5th Fleet vastly expanded its use of drones and artificial intelligence to patrol those waterways, according to the Associated Press.

Drones manufactured and supplied by Iran have flooded countries in the region that host Iran-backed militias.

Lebanese Hizbullah specialists have been training members of the Afghan Fatemiyoun Division on operating drones in the Syrian Badiya (eastern desert), near Palmyra, according to recent reports.

In Yemen, the Iran-backed Houthi militia has used Iranian drones on many occasions to strike facilities in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

In Iraq, Iran-backed militias have used Iranian drones for years to hit foreign military bases and targets in the Arabian Gulf.

"Iranian drones are a great danger that must be confronted," said Saudi military analyst Mansour al-Shehri.

"Iran's plans are unpredictable ... and its politics are rogue and serve only the policies of Tehran and the IRGC," he told Al-Mashareq.

"A clear example of this is [Iran's] arbitrary use of these drones to attack Gulf states or threaten vessels in the Arabian Sea region," he said.

Waleed Abu al-Khair contributed to this report from Cairo.