By Nohad Topalian | 2024-03-28

BEIRUT -- Iran has been smuggling weapons to Hizbullah by sea, Iranian affairs and maritime experts confirmed, ramping up deliveries to Syrian ports after land routes via the Iraq-Syria border came under fire.

Iran has sought to conceal these deliveries in various ways, Asharq al-Awsat revealed in a March 15 report.

In some cases, Iran has been delivering shipments of arms to Syrian ports via ships that continue on to European ports to disguise the nature of their activity.

Some shipments are reportedly unloaded in the Syrian port of Baniyas, or at sea, with the weapons then transported overland to Hizbullah in Lebanon.

Iran "is smuggling weapons to Syria and Hizbullah by land, air and sea," Iranian affairs researcher Mustafa al-Nuaimi told Al-Fassel.

"When one of its routes is compromised, it uses alternative means to deliver its weapons," he said.

After air strikes targeted Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) command and control headquarters, intelligence centers and weapon storage sites in the Albu Kamal area on the Syria-Iraq border, smuggling by sea increased, he said.

"Iran has stepped up the smuggling of weapons by sea, specifically ballistic missiles [concealed among] oil shipments coming from Iran to Syrian ports," al-Nuaimi said. "It unloads some of them at sea."

Some items are delivered in parts to conceal their purpose or to circumvent sanctions, he said.

Iran also uses commercial vessels chartered from countries like Venezuela to conceal its activities, communicating with maritime navigation agencies under the names of those countries to avoid being apprehended, he said.

"These cargoes consist of key components such as drone engines and missiles, which are too heavy to ship by air and vulnerable to attack if shipped by land."

Clandestine shipments

Iran seeks to control Bab al-Mandeb and the Strait of Hormuz, and is now "establishing a naval platform" in the Syrian port of Baniyas, al-Nuaimi said.

The Islamic Republic is "trying to establish a dominant position in Syria by building a naval base equipped with Iranian-made Noor anti-ship missiles and investing in Syrian naval defense systems of Russian origin," he added.

The IRGC is exploiting its ability to move around inside Iran "to import weapons, ammunition and sensitive materials essential for military manufacturing for its drones and ballistic programs," he said.

These are then transported to Lebanon via private airlines affiliated with the IRGC, such as Mahan Air and Meraj Air.

The weapon transfers are managed by Hizbullah's Unit 4400, which is responsible for arms shipments, in collaboration with IRGC Quds Force Unit 190, according to the Asharq al-Awsat report.

Weapon components are "reassembled and developed at scientific research centers in Syrian regions occupied by Hizbullah, especially in Qusayr and Qalamoun," al-Nuaimi said, as well as in the Sayyida Zainab area of Damascus.

He stressed the need for "advanced surveillance and monitoring methods to monitor the departure point of ships from Iranian ports, such as Bandar Abbas, all the way along their route to Syrian ports."

Surreptitious activity

Iran's smuggling of weapons by sea "is not new, and has been ongoing since 2012," said Malik al-Kurdi, a former Syrian navy colonel who defected in 2011.

"We have been monitoring the movement of Iranian ships from their source all the way to the Mediterranean coast, where they would turn off their tracking devices and stealthily enter Tartous port," he told Al-Fassel.

"When they were anchored in international waters, ferries were sent to them to unload their cargo of weapons into containers," he said.

These were then transported overland to al-Boqaa in Bayt Mubarak, an IRGC-Hizbullah military base and training facility in the Hermel-Bekaa region on Lebanon's eastern border, directly across from Syria's al-Zabadani.

After surreptitiously unloading their illicit cargo, he said, Iranian ships would then proceed openly to the Syrian ports of Tartous and Latakia.

After Israel bombed the port of Latakia, Iran began using ships flying flags of other countries, he said.

In order to avoid the risk of entering Syrian ports altogether, Iran "unloads the ships at sea and transports the shipments to the ports of Latakia and Tartous via boats and barges, and from there to warehouses in rural Latakia and Tartous to be transported to the fronts as needed," al-Kurdi said.

The pace of sea smuggling intensified after international forces targeted land crossings, especially Albu Kamal and the regime's airports, he said.