Has the mystery of the ‘vanished’ tanker ‘Gulf Sky’ been solved? – analysis

Last year, an oil tanker disappeared while at anchor off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. It then turned up off the coast of Iran. The crew claimed to have been hijacked. Tankers don’t just get hijacked and taken to Iran. The Islamic Republic was likely behind the hijacking, one of many incidents in the Gulf of Oman where the rogue nation has threatened shipping.

The Jerusalem Post reported on the odyssey of the Gulf Sky at the time, and the enduring mystery it left behind. Now the BBC has done a complex and long investigation into what happened. Has the story been solved? It doesn’t seem so.  

First, a little history. In May and June 2019, tensions between the US and Iran increased. Tehran attacked six ships off the coast of Oman, mining them and causing damage. Then Iran shot down an expensive US surveillance drone.

In September 2019, it attacked Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq energy facility. Iran seized the British flagged Stena Impero ship, after harassing the British Heritage tanker in July 2019, ostensibly in response to UK Royal Marines boarding the Grace 1, an Iranian tanker on the way to Syria.

In the summer of 2020, the US seized oil from four Iranian tankers making their way to Venezuela. This year, Iran sailed two naval ships around Africa to Russia and has been sending oil to Syria. It used drones to attack a ship in late July and has attacked several ships in the Gulf of Oman that it thinks are linked to Israel. Tehran indicates this is in response to Israeli attacks.

That is the broad brushstrokes of the conflict at sea and Iran’s readiness to use any and all means to go after ships, especially if it feels it has a reason to do so, either to send a message or get revenge.

Now, let’s look at the story of the Gulf Sky. It went missing on July 5 while at anchor off the coast of Oman. Ten days later it turned up off the coast of Iran. It had a crew on board. 

“For the first time, eight former crew [members] have spoken to the BBC about the ship’s disappearance, saying they were hijacked by a group of armed men. All but the captain have asked not to be named, out of fear for their safety and livelihoods,” the British broadcaster says.

IT ALL began at dusk in early July. Captain Joginder Singh was waiting for a “group of surveyors to assess the tanker for a new role.” The crew of the ship had been at the center of an international case, not only because its ownership was being wrangled over, but because they had been stranded off the coast on the ship while waiting.

The crew now say that a boat came up to the ship with seven men on board. They asked “the 28-man crew to gather in the mess,” the BBC says. They then took over the ship. “We don’t want to hurt you but we will if we have to,” the chief surveyor said, according to the captain and several crew members. “America has stolen this ship and we are taking it back.” 

After being hijacked, the ship was put in working order, supposedly by these seven hijackers. “Once the Gulf Sky began to move from its anchorage in Khor Fakkan, it didn’t stop for another 12 hours, say the crew.” They also told the BBC the hijackers spoke Arabic. In another odd twist, the crew said one man of the apparent hijackers was from Azerbaijan. Other crew members heard Farsi. “They believe a new crew had been brought in to run the ship in their place.” 

The explanation the hijackers or “new crew” gave was that “we just want the ship. We had paid the money and the payment was stopped. It’s not our fault… The problem is no country wants to take you, even your own country,” the crew were told.

On July 14 the crew were offloaded at Bandar Abbas, on the coast of Iran. “They report being taken ashore and traveling to an airfield. When their blindfolds were finally taken off, the crew noticed that they were on a plane – a military jet, they say – which transported them to Tehran.” 

Flown to Imam Khomeini International Airport, the men then met officials from the Indian embassy, which had arranged a way to fly them home on July 15. Case closed, supposedly. No one seemed to care about what had happened.

THE SEAS appear to be largely lawless. A ship can be hijacked and taken to another country and its crew flown home with no questions. The men “are also battling for over $200,000 in back pay they say they’re owed from the time the ship was held off the UAE.” 

In the end, the UK charity Human Rights at Sea notes that crews aboard these types of ships receive few protections.  

Now what has become of the ship? The report says it has been renamed Rima and is now Iranian-flagged. An Iranian company owns it now. In late August it was near Bandar Bushehr. The BBC quotes Michelle Bockmann, from Lloyds List Intelligence, asserting the ship may be  “helping to transport Iranian oil around the world, in breach of sanctions.”

Questions remain about how this ship was so easily hijacked and taken away. The case illustrates the lawlessness with which Iran operates in these areas. International shipping isn’t supposed to be lawless, but Iran is one country that has pushed the envelope. From trade to evading sanctions to attacks on ships – and apparently even trading with hijackers or sending them – it violates numerous laws of the sea seemingly without repercussion.

It is careful not to do this against its friends in China, Russia, Qatar or Turkey. But it has no problem meddling with the UAE, Saudi Arabia, the US and UK, and even harming ships linked to Japan, Israel and other countries. It doesn’t usually harm crew members. But during a recent drone attack it did kill two from the Mercer Street, a British and Romania national. Yet, Iran faces no repercussions.

The Gulf Sky is symbolic of how some of the most trafficked sea lanes in the world are nevertheless open to Tehran’s predations.