By Rami Ayyub and Ari Rabinovitch
TEL AVIV (Reuters) – Israel accused Iran on Wednesday of being linked to a recent oil spill on its back that caused major ecological damage, calling the incident environmental terrorism.
The leak was caused by an oil tanker transporting pirated cargo from Iran to Syria last month, said Israeli Environmental Protection Minister Gila Gamliel.
The ship sailed through the Gulf and Red Sea without radio contact, turning on its tracking devices before passing through the Suez Canal in Egypt, Gamliel told reporters.
He turned off the devices again before entering Israeli waters in the eastern Mediterranean and poured oil into the sea between February 1 and 2, she said, naming the ship the Panamanian-flagged Emerald oil tanker.
“Iran is (leading) terrorism by harming the environment, and (when) Iran is harming the environment, it is not just harming the state of Israel,” said Gamliel.
There was no immediate comment from Iran.
The charge is the second in a week in which Israel has blamed its former enemy, Iran, for irregularities at sea.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed Tehran for the explosion aboard an Israeli ship in the Gulf of Oman last week, an accusation rejected by Tehran.
Tensions have increased in the Gulf region since the United States re-imposed sanctions on Iran in 2018, after then President Donald Trump withdrew Washington from a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and the major powers.
ECOLOGICAL DISASTER
The oil spill has blackened beaches along the Israeli coast, and clusters of sticky black tar have been carried to the coasts of southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, too.
Environmental groups are calling it an ecological disaster that can take years to eliminate.
Gamliel said the vessel “belonged to and was operated by a Libyan”, without identifying a person or company.
Libya’s state-owned shipping company, General National Maritime Transport Company, said it owned the ship, but sold it at an auction in December.
The ship was acquired by Emerald Marine Ltd, a company based in the Marshall Islands, according to the navigation database Equasis. Reuters was unable to contact the company immediately for comment.
Gamliel said the ship turned on its tracking devices again when it arrived in Syria on February 3, where it said it unloaded crude oil. Then he returned to Iran, where he is currently anchored, she said.
Tracking data from the ship Refinitiv showed that the ship reported a destination from Sohar in Oman, on the other side of the Gulf of Oman from Iran, on January 20, meaning that it was close to the Iranian coast at that time.
Ship tracking data showed no destination in Iran, although it is common for ships to hide their movements there.
The ship reported its position after passing through the Suez Canal on February 1, Refinitiv data showed. He then reported his position to Mersin, Turkey, on 3 February, showing a gap between 1 and 3 February.
The ship did not report destinations in Syria, although it is also common for ships to hide movements there.
An international convention requires merchant ships to have a satellite tracking device on board when traveling at sea. But a ship’s captain has the power to turn off the transponder in certain circumstances, allowing them to avoid detection.
The Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection said it had collected strong “circumstantial evidence” that this was the ship behind the spill, although it had no “forensic evidence”. He said he also ruled out any other sources.
(Additional reporting by the Reuters Libya newsroom, Jonathan Saul in London and Marianna Parraga in Mexico City; edited by Mark Heinrich, Alexandra Hudson and Jonathan Oatis)