Black Fleet. Iranian oil that keeps Assad afloat

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Foreign Policy magazine published a detailed review of the mechanism by which Iran supplies Bashar Assad regime with oil.

It is no secret to anyone that the Iranian regime views the bloody meat grinder in Syria as an internal rather than foreign policy problem. The forces of the Al-Quds Islamic Revolutionary Corps teach and finance the Alawite and Shiite sectarian militias in order to win the war, which President Assad finds it difficult to win with the help of the conventional army.

Without the military intervention supported by Iran’s Hezbollah in al-Xayr and Homs, these areas would still be under the control of the rebels.

No wonder Mehdi Taib, a confidant of Ayatollah Khamenei, said that the loss of the “35 province” would mark the imminent collapse of the Islamic Republic itself.

The Foreign Policy has received a package of documents showing how Iran has established the supply of practically free oil to the Syrian Arab Republic. In simple words, Tehran donates its own natural resources for free while its own people live in misery due to the regime of international sanctions.

Iran "sold" Syria about 4 million barrels of light Iranian oil - at a discount of at least 10%. In May, the level of international oil prices was 98 dollars per barrel, and Asad received it at the price of 88 dollars per barrel (not including transportation costs). Payments for oil, apparently, are carried out on the line received from Iran as a long-term loan worth 3,6 billion.

There is no guarantee that Assad, whose economy has been destroyed by a three-year civil war, will ever be able to pay this debt, and the Iranians most likely do not expect this, based on their understanding that Assad’s survival is inextricably linked to their own survival. This means that they not only supply Assad with oil at a bargain price, but they also give him money to buy it.

David Butter, an energy specialist in the Middle East at Chatham House’s research center, decided that before the outbreak of the civil war, Syria produced 385 thousand barrels of oil daily. Of these, 150 thousand barrels were exported, and the rest - to the Syrian refineries to meet local needs. Butter says: "Now Syria produces no more than 20 thousand barrels per day and imports about 130 thousand barrels from abroad." According to the authorities, the oil sector is almost destroyed, and the amount of direct and indirect damage for the autumn of 2012 was 2,9 billion dollars. Syrian Oil Minister says government spending on oil purchases amount to 400 million dollars a month.

ForeignPolicy publishes a letter to S. Moradinasaba, director of Sahand Naft Iran Ltd, working in the structures of the Iranian Ministry of Oil, Mohammed Alrobeh, director of the Syrian state-owned company Sytrol from 13 in May 2013. The letter confirms that the “special economic planning committee” has confirmed the provision to Syria of an 10-percent discount on the sale of oil.

According to another expert on Iran, David Patrikarakos, the committee was specifically created to work with the economic aspects of the Syrian crisis. In addition to this, the package of documents has a contract from 31 of May 2013, on the sale of more than a million barrels of light Iranian oil. Oil was delivered to the port of Banias by Iranian tanker Camellia during April 2013. The tanker is owned by a company registered at the same address in Tehran as the largest tanker company in the Middle East - National IranianTanker Co. (Nitc). The contract says that the settlement will be made either directly between the central banks of Syria and Iran, or "at the expense of the credit line opened by the Iranian government of Syria."

According to the official version, a long-term loan allows the Iranian government "to acquire shares in the authorized capital of Syrian enterprises." The head of the Syrian central bank, Adib Mayleh, in an interview with the newspaper Tishreen let it slip that the real amount of Iranian credit is 7 billion dollars, and Damascus can use this money to pay for any kind of goods.

David Patrikarakos says: "I do not believe that Assad will be able to repay this loan in the foreseeable future." But such free supplies can create a negative reaction in Iran itself - among the Iranians there is growing indignation at the fact that national natural resources are being squandered on foreign policy adventures, and not on the needs of the country.

Patrikarakos comments: “The Iranians are suffering from the impact of the sanctions and they spend money — money they don't have on Hezbollah and Assad. Keeping the Syrian energy sector afloat is also political nonsense, than the collapse of Assad. "

Moreover, Iran’s costs are not limited to oil supplies to Assad. The Islamic Republic has to invent complex and expensive schemes for making such supplies, register front companies in offshore areas and hang flags of profitable registration on their ships. Interesting are the names of tankers, which are carried out. The ship "Baikal" belongs to the mentioned NITC, but sails under the Tanzanian flag. In December, it delivered 2012 1 100 barrels of Iranian oil to Banias in Banias 635. Another tanker, the Volga, brought 850 thousand barrels to Banias in February of this year, after which it was renamed Ramtin. Now he walks under the Iranian flag, but is owned by Tabuk Maritime Inc., registered in Dubai.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Research Center published in January a detailed report on this kind of fraud. It says: "At present, more than 100 changes have been recorded in the names of ships associated with Iranian shipments." All this makes the maintenance of the sanctions regime a real nightmare. In one case, Iran established a front company on an island in the Pacific. It existed only 20 days - in order to perform a single transport.

Despite all the tricks described, it is possible to further complicate the lives of Iranian carriers, especially with regard to the supply of oil to the Assad regime, and make such deliveries excessively expensive. You can change the flag or the owner of the tanker, but you cannot change its IMO - a unique identifier assigned to each ship by the International Maritime Organization. This means that in reality all of the listed ships are simply enough to observe.

Iranian experts say that this is how it happens, and Iranian tankers, regardless of changes in names and owners, are being monitored all the time. No one is satisfied with the scandal for several reasons - the negotiations P5 + 1, the Syrian peace initiative, etc.

Despite the fact that many countries can and have the right to continue business with Iran, most insurers, port authorities, captains and other representatives of the global maritime infrastructure do not want to get involved with the pariah state and make life difficult. Many non-European countries are under heavy pressure from the West. Tanzania has publicly stated that it will remove its flag from the Iranian ships. Belize also intends to remove Iranian ships from its maritime register. Not all cases require such explicit measures. Iran is actively using the services of the Marshall Islands offshore, whose corporate and maritime registries are located in Fairfax, Virginia, adjacent to the headquarters of the CIA.

Without a doubt, most of the oil going from Iran to Syria is necessary in order to maintain the functioning of the al-Assad war machine. With all the discounts and credits, he actually gets it for free - or rather, at the expense of the impoverished Iranian people. The West does not want to arm the Syrian rebels and is mortally afraid of direct intervention in Syria. At the same time, it is expected that he will reach some kind of “settlement” at the Geneva-2 conference with a regime that does not have the slightest reason to seek such a settlement now when it is supported by free oil. Perhaps the so-called "friends of Syria", before going to Geneva, should at least try to prevent the continuation of the outpourings of Iranian generosity towards Assad.

Based on: Michael Weiss. Black Navy. Tracking the Iranian-backed fleet that's fueling the Assad regime. Foreign Policy. October 28, 2013
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30 comments
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  1. +12
    13 November 2013 16: 04
    there are smart people in Iran and not smart people will figure out if the Syria will collapse then Iran is next ......
    1. +1
      13 November 2013 23: 07
      And then who probably everyone understands.
      1. 0
        14 November 2013 05: 26
        Quote: Jamal
        And then who probably everyone understands.

        then like the Libyan people will live happily and "democratically" (and without oil)
    2. The comment was deleted.
  2. +19
    13 November 2013 16: 06
    Mlyn, poor Americans, everyone cares about the Iranian people, they can't sleep! The Iranian elite at the expense of the poor Iranian people supplies Assaad, ah, the poor Iranian people! Something shivers when Americans take an interest in my person as a representative of the "poor Kazakh people" and attend to my democratization laughing! God forbid from such "preoccupied", and from the enemies as a thread we will fight off
    1. +11
      13 November 2013 16: 14
      Iran "sold" to Syria about 4 million barrels of light Iranian oil - at a discount of at least 10%.


      Interesting, interesting, i.e. 10% discount is it "almost free"? for example, Ukraine wants to have a gas discount of about 50% is this normal? so who will give it to her.

      Well, as I understand it, the whole point of the article boils down to the fact that Iran sells oil bypassing the so-called. sanctions imposed by BB because of the sea-okey and the EU. And they wanted to spit on the "impoverished Iranian people"
      1. +5
        13 November 2013 18: 51
        Quote: seller trucks
        And they wanted to spit on the "impoverished Iranian people"

        They are looking for a reason to help the Iranians with humanitarian aid in the form of the Tomahawks, and save them from the totalitarian regime.
      2. 0
        14 November 2013 07: 24
        Quote: seller trucks
        Interesting, interesting, i.e. 10% discount is it "almost free"? for example, Ukraine wants to have a gas discount of about 50% is this normal?

        ... besides, the price of Brent rent or with what delivery, but if it’s nearby, then the costs are less. And also if there is some SWOT :) - who knows how oil will fall on the market ...
        In addition, the West once sold our gas at a discount to Ukraine one day in the spring, I don’t remember how much. So everything is within the framework of market relations :)
        Moreover. Why shouldn't Iran rent the destroyed wells, concessions, and finally create a joint venture to Iran as settlements? With the establishment of appropriate protection of international property by the Iranian police :)
        And even better - Russia ...
        In this regard, I did not understand about tankers - are they ours? It turns out that Russia still had a considerable hand in this business? Probably someone revered Liddell Garth :) If so, then in vain we were here in the spring in the spring to visit our government for inaction ...
    2. +6
      13 November 2013 16: 27
      Quote: aksakal
      poor Americans, everything about the Iranian people is baked, they can’t sleep!

      Well, yes, they first impose sanctions, and then accuse the ayatollah of impoverishment
      the "unfortunate" Iranian population. Logic, however!
  3. +7
    13 November 2013 16: 09
    In a statement by Mehdi Taeb, there were such words: "The Iranian front line is in Syria." Therefore, the Iranians are fighting in Syria not only with money but also with soldiers.
    1. +1
      13 November 2013 23: 10
      There is the Russian front line.
  4. +6
    13 November 2013 16: 15
    What the hell does Foreign Policy do about Iran's dealings with Syria? And since when has the United States been interested in the fate of Iranian money and the "common people"? Does he want to calculate how much taxpayer money is spent by the United States to support this wasp nest? How much does the United States spend around the world to support NGOs, vpopusizatsii, LGBT people, Israel, Poland, Georgia and other "lights of democracy"?
    1. +4
      13 November 2013 16: 33
      if there were appropriate comments, there would be a plus, and so, the transfer of the cannibal’s complaint to the victim that she was fluttering, and her neighbors also helped her, but they planned to devour them tomorrow.
  5. DuraLexSedLex.
    +5
    13 November 2013 16: 37
    The result of this article?) I did not understand it) Yes, Iran supplies the Syrian government (I want to note the official one) with oil. Because it knows that if the support is stopped, all this fire will be transferred to Iran itself.
    1. +4
      13 November 2013 17: 04
      Quote: DuraLexSedLex.
      Iran supplies the Syrian government (official I want to note) with oil.


      Not only do Iranian military advisers work in the Syrian army, there is a video dated October 1 of this year in which Iranian soldiers train Syrian militias so that they can fight along with the regular army, former Egyptian intelligence officer Yahya Mohammed Ali said that Iranian fighters are Basij forces of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. In addition, Iran publicly dispatched the elite Kods units of the Syrian Revolutionary Guards to hold consultations with the Syrian forces; they are fighting as part of the Abu Fadhel al-Abbas Brigade.
      1. +1
        13 November 2013 21: 40
        Quote: Vadivak
        "Basij" of the Revolutionary Guard of Iran.


        you are mistaken. The Basij is not the revolutionary guard, but the Iranian paramilitary militia of volunteers, founded by Ayatollah Khomeini in November 1979.

        it’s just a paramilitary militia legally subordinate to the IRGC.
        so it’s unlikely that the instructors from the basija.instructions are most likely from the IRGC.
  6. +4
    13 November 2013 16: 41
    In simple words, Tehran gives its own natural resources for free, while its own people are in poverty due to the regime of international sanctions.
    By doing this, Iran primarily thinks of its future, do not help Syria now, then it will be too late.
  7. +7
    13 November 2013 16: 45
    Look at how various Anglo-Saxon analysts and experts from Iran and Syria express hostile states for them from here and rhetoric like Assad MODE and DICTATURE in IRAN - BUT WE KNOW EXCELLENTLY WHO IS THE MAIN SUPPLIER of evil to these countries.

    Payment for mercenaries for the murders of children and women is carried out at the request of the Anglo-Saxons and their satellites — now you cannot be fooled by beautiful words about democracy and freedom, they are murderers and bloodsuckers of human blood.
  8. +3
    13 November 2013 17: 13
    In simple words, Tehran gives its own natural resources for free, while its own people are in poverty due to the regime of international sanctions.

    Well ... here you also need to calculate who is more impoverished because of the foreign policy of his state: the Iranian people or the American.
  9. makarov
    +4
    13 November 2013 17: 21
    "... Iran has established the supply of practically free oil to the Syrian Arab Republic. In simple terms, Tehran is giving away its own natural resources, while its own people are in poverty due to the regime of international sanctions ...."

    How Syria and Iran are hated by these freaks !!! Take a look at how they gnash their porcelain teeth !! Nothing, maybe the teeth then increase!
  10. makarov
    0
    13 November 2013 17: 21
    "... Iran has established the supply of practically free oil to the Syrian Arab Republic. In simple terms, Tehran is giving away its own natural resources, while its own people are in poverty due to the regime of international sanctions ...."

    How Syria and Iran are hated by these freaks !!! Take a look at how they gnash their porcelain teeth !! Nothing, maybe the teeth then increase!
  11. avg
    +2
    13 November 2013 17: 39
    So anyway, he cannot sell it, so at least he will give it to the Syrians.
  12. +6
    13 November 2013 17: 49
    Not all money is measured.
  13. +6
    13 November 2013 18: 29
    Syria for Iran as the Caucasus for Russia .. Iran will not be surrendered ..! Iran will not be all this evil spirits into Asia and the path is known further (what certain circles in the Middle East have been dreaming of for a long time) I looked here today photo archive Iraq Libya before and after the horror ... We in Russia took the first blow, but it seems to have fought back. ! Now there is concrete pressure on Iran .. The Saudis are again planning something (I think it will be concrete mischief before the Olympics or during its holding) We are waiting and getting ready ..
  14. Jogan-xnumx
    +2
    13 November 2013 20: 33
    It is high time for us to break off these pi. Andos sanctions and establish formal military and trade relations with Iran. There will be no harm from this, except for foreign "democrats", and the benefits and authority will increase many times over. Yes, our outpost in that region, as Syria and Iran, will not be superfluous.
  15. +3
    13 November 2013 20: 53
    someone toad crushed it seems
  16. +2
    13 November 2013 21: 50
    Very similar: the happiness of our grandchildren is in the hands of Syrian soldiers.
  17. +2
    13 November 2013 21: 53
    The West does not want to arm Syrian rebels and is mortally afraid of direct intervention in Syria.

    It is enough to read this phrase and draw conclusions about the reliability of the article in general. negative
  18. 0
    13 November 2013 21: 54
    The West does not want to arm Syrian rebels and is mortally afraid of direct intervention in Syria.

    It is enough to read this phrase and draw conclusions about the reliability of the article in general. negative
  19. -1
    13 November 2013 21: 54
    Quote: gladysheff2010
    Very similar: the happiness of our grandchildren is in the hands of Syrian soldiers.

    God forbid, first of all, rely on your army, and the allies are so changeable.
  20. +2
    13 November 2013 21: 55
    Such an article and almost all consists of a text devoted to a 10% discount on Iranian oil for Syria.
    And there is practically nothing about the fact that Iran supplies weapons, food, provides political cover and, in general, the IRGC fighters are fighting on the side of the SA.
    If Iran does not do this, then its next turn.
  21. +1
    13 November 2013 22: 03
    David Patrikarakos says: "I do not believe that Assad will be able to repay this loan in the foreseeable future." But such free supplies can create a negative reaction in Iran itself - among the Iranians there is growing indignation at the fact that national natural resources are being squandered on foreign policy adventures, and not on the needs of the country.
    Such so-called "experts" do not understand the logic of the people who are ready to die free than to kneel. Such "experts" easily sell everything and everyone for their skin and benefits.
  22. +1
    13 November 2013 22: 06
    We need to take an example from Iran, in addition to fuel and Assad’s soldiers there is still much to be helped, especially since we leave Syria without a chemical. weapons. It would be necessary to balance the decline.
  23. 0
    14 November 2013 00: 01
    Well done, Iranians need to help a neighbor put out a fire so that they don’t spread to their house hi
  24. Umar
    0
    14 November 2013 00: 29
    In short, Iran helps Syria, that's good, that's fine, well done good !!!
  25. 0
    14 November 2013 05: 28
    and the Iranian people do not live so badly. and gas is cheap there
  26. 0
    14 November 2013 06: 17
    Quote: Sterlya
    and the Iranian people do not live so badly. and gas is cheap there

    My opinion is that gasoline in all oil-producing countries is cheap, except ours! am
  27. 0
    14 November 2013 06: 54
    Bandyuki in Syria remained orphans. They don’t want to arm them. And where do their resources for the war come from? Does Allah give?

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