The smuggling of oil to Syria has led to the great environmental disaster

Rani Amir, director of the maritime unit at the Ministry of Environmental Protection, said that the purpose of the tanker was to smuggle oil illegally from Iran to Syria. “We can not prove it, but for us it is very clear,” he said. “Excluding crude oil on a 19-year-old ship. We see no other option.” Because the tanker, which can carry 112,000 tons of crude oil, is old, it cannot enter ports in Europe and the United States.

Another circumstantial evidence linking the ship that left Iran to the pollution is the fact that the vessel has not been in the eastern basin of the Mediterranean for the past eight years. Amir: “A few days before she sailed to us with the suspected cargo with the Panama flag – she exchanged a flag. Earlier she was with a Malta flag. She replaces the flag to disguise her steps. She may have changed company. But there is no doubt that the company is Libyan. For us the conclusions are circumstantial. And very powerful. “

The Associated Press reported that the ship, which according to the Ministry of Environmental Protection was Libya-owned, changed owners in December. It is probably registered in the Marshall Islands.

Brigadier General Yoram Longo, who in his last position served as head of an intelligence ship, explained that “all fuel goods to Syria are problematic. Probably from Iran. Because the two countries, I believe, are under sanctions. This ship did not operate its identification system and all its movement “It is carried out not under international law and the traffic regulations at sea. At sea there are traffic laws like on land.”

According to him, some of the guidelines are to operate identification systems for the benefit of safety. “A vessel like this, so that they will not see and recognize it, does not operate these systems,” he said. “This process is designed to bring oil to Syria because other countries do not sell it oil. There is a kind of leper alliance between Iran and Syria. One can recall those Iranian tankers that sailed towards Venezuela a few months ago. There was a fear of the Iranians that the Americans would take over these ships. “To export oil, to get money for it despite the various boycotts they have on behalf of the Americans, and the fear of countries facing the US sanctions if they cooperate with them.”

Gamliel said in her remarks that “Iran is waging terrorism not only by trying to arm itself with nuclear weapons or by trying to establish itself within our borders. Iran is also waging terrorism by harming the environment.” But senior officials in her office cautioned. Security sources said they were not aware that Iran was behind the incident, and that it was an ecological attack.

One of the breakthroughs in the investigation was the determination that the pollutant is crude oil, which helped reduce the list of suspected ships from just 35 to four. Because the ship that left Iran was old, it turned off its devices while passing through Israel’s economic waters and also supplied oil to Syria, illegally, the suspicion that it was the polluting factor increased.

Also, in recent days, two more oil slicks have been discovered in the area where the tanker was located, between Cyprus and Syria. After transferring the oil to the Syrians, it once again passed through Israel’s economic waters and returned to Iran – where it is today.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection initially estimated that the contamination was created on February 11, a few days before the tar reached the shores of Israel. But now the information is that the oil was spilled into the Mediterranean Sea between February 1 and 2, at a distance of about 130 km off the coast of Israel.

Minister Gamliel said that “European satellites found retrospective documentation of a stain on February 5, which could be associated with the tanker in question, tens of kilometers from our shores. This spot may be an early incarnation of the spot discovered on the 11th of the month about 50 km off the coast Israel, and according to the models from this location, the lumps of tar landed on the shores of Israel. “

Rami Peleg, Nir Lewinsky, the lead investigator, Adv. Yoni Shamir from the Green Police, Maayan Haim and Yoav Ratner also participated in the investigation.

The details that appear on the net about the Emerald tanker indicate that the giant tanker is 250 meters long, 44 meters wide and the maximum weight it can carry is 112,679 tons. A presentation by the Ministry of Environmental Protection states that the tanker loaded crude oil in the Persian Gulf, apparently in Iran or Iraq, between January 14 and 18.

On January 20, it crossed the Strait of Hormuz, which connects the Gulf of Oman in the Indian Ocean with the Persian Gulf. On January 31, it passed through the Suez Canal, then entered the economic waters of Egypt. According to the Ministry of Environmental Protection, it then turned off the transmitter for 23 hours and continued to Syria. On 15 February she reached Port Said again and crossed the Suez Canal, on 27 February she crossed the Strait of Hormuz and yesterday arrived at the port of Umm Qasr in Iraq, near the city of Basra.

In the past, the tanker was called EBN BATUTA and sailed under the flag of Malta, before moving to sailing under the Panama flag. For the past several years, its operator has been GNMTC, a Libyan-controlled company. In huge letters it says: “Preserving the environment.”

An Israeli company also participated in the investigation. Ami Daniel, CEO and founder of the Israeli strap WindWard, told Ynet that “we helped the ministry look at the movement of ships and the weather. Of course they consulted with other parties. We end up using existing information and analyzing it. The key moment in the investigation was identifying the material. “As crude oil, not fuel for ships. As soon as it is crude oil it means it is a tank full of oil. The tank that was rejected, the Minerva Helen, was empty. We analyzed full tanks. This led to a reasonable conclusion that it was emerald.

On the oil smuggling from Iran, Daniel said that Cuba, Venezuela and other countries are also circumventing the sanctions imposed on the Syrian Assad regime. “There are transfers between ships in the middle of the sea and not in the ports. Shutting down transmissions to avoid surveillance. They are constantly changing their patterns of operation. Complex ownership structures, something that exists in the shipping world anyway. The ship in question most likely took Iranian oil “Between ships. This is a familiar pattern. Then she sailed through the Suez Canal, turned off broadcasts in transit in front of Israel. Then she made another transfer to the ship, apparently to Syria.”

He warned that such an environmental disaster could occur again. “This thing could happen again tomorrow,” he said. “Until we have eyes in the sky that will monitor what happens every day in the Red Sea and the Mediterranean – it could happen again.”

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