August 06, 2021
Two Iranian Navy ships that many American right wingers thought were being sailed across the Atlantic to threaten the United States have not crossed the Atlantic at all instead they have sailed through the English Channel, around Denmark and docked at Saint Peterburg in Russia where they joined a naval parade in celebration of the founding of Russian Navy.
However, close observation of the ships when they went under a Danish bridge shows they are still carrying seven fast attack speedboats on deck. It was those speedboats that initially sparked the speculation that the ships were on their way to Venezuela to deliver the boats there. It remains possible that after the two Iranian ships leave Saint Petersburg they will still sail to Venezuela to offload the speedboats.
But thus far, the two ships haven’t lived up to their advance billing and the global media stopped paying much attention once the pair stopped sailing across the Atlantic and instead shifted to a northward course. They headed to the Baltic Sea to represent Iran in the July 25 naval parade off the coast of St. Petersburg to commemorate the 325th anniversary of the Russian Navy.
The pair, the frigate Sahand and former-oil-tanker-turned-warship Makran, sailed up the West coast of Africa, past Spain and France, through the English Channel and then into the Baltic, all at a very leisurely pace. They spent a full week loitering off Senegal in West Africa.
When they finally reached the reached the Baltic, Sahand committed a blunder that went unreported in Iran. Estonia is as sensitive as Iran when it comes to foreign ships in its territorial waters, and requires that foreign ships inform Estonia in advance of entering Estonian waters. The Sahand did not do so. According to the newspaper Estonian World, the police “ordered” Sahand to leave and it complied.
Makran apparently did not enter Estonian waters. It is the largest vessel in the Iranian Navy. When Makran was first observed in November 2020, the ship was thought by western observers to be like the US Navy’s Expeditionary Sea Base (ESB) ships. ESBs act as a floating base for operations and can carry or support a range of small boats and aircraft.
Makran is a unique warship that entered service with the Iranian Navy in January. Although exact definitions vary from navy to navy, there is a common notion of what destroyers, frigates, and cruisers are. And it is the same for naval auxiliaries such as oilers, submarine tenders and hospital ships. The status of the converted oil-tanker is still unclear. There is a natural suspicion that Iran may use Makran as a blockade-runner, delivering fuel to sanctioned allies under the legal protections of a warship in peacetime.
In August 2020, four shipments of Iranian oil aboard civilian tankers were seized by the US.
All of the tankers involved were merchant ships. But Makran is a naval auxiliary, which provides it with some protection under international law. As a naval auxiliary, it is classified as a warship and is therefore entitled to sovereign immunity. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, it is immune from the jurisdiction of any other state. So, it, or its cargo, could not be seized in the same manner as the civilian vessels.
There is a trade-off, however. Being a naval auxiliary, in wartime it is not entitled to belligerent rights during armed conflict. This means that it cannot lawfully conduct attacks. So, long-range anti-ship missiles, like those carried on another Iranian forward base ship, Shahid Roudaki, could not credibly be fitted. But Makran has none of these, only helicopters, short range cannon, or six autocannon positions, and machine guns are fitted. And, like US naval auxiliaries, it can carry out the full range of naval support missions in peace or war.
If Makran ultimately delivers its cargo to Venezuela, or any other customer, then it may prove the case for this new category of warship. Yet only countries intending to flout international sanctions or embargoes could pursue a similar concept.