A suspected Iranian spy ship appears to be sailing home after nearly three years at sea — a move that comes as the world awaits Israel’s response to Tehran’s retaliatory attack.
The return of the MV Behshad, a cargo ship which U.S. analysts and officials suspect may have provided information and targeting assistance to Houthi rebels in the Red Sea, would remove one possible high-profile target for any Israeli strikes.
Iran has previously warned against targeting the ship, and in a sign of the heightened tensions over possible Israeli targets, a senior Iranian commander warned Thursday that the country could review its nuclear doctrine.
“If Israel wants to use the threat of attacking nuclear centers to put pressure on Iran, it is likely that the nuclear doctrine and policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran will be reviewed and the considerations announced previously will be cancelled,” Ahmad Haghtalab, the IRGC commander in charge of nuclear security, was quoted as saying by the country’s semi-official Tasnim news agency.
The Behshad crossed from the Arabian Gulf into the Persian Gulf early Thursday morning, and was due to arrive later this evening at the port of Bandar Abbas on Iran’s southern coast, according to ship tracking website MarineTraffic.com. Data provided to the website via the automated identification system of the Behshad said that it had been at sea since June 18, 2021.
NBC News previously reported that the Behshad had spent a long time at sea, lingering in almost the same spot in the Red Sea between Yemen and Eritrea since Jan. 2023. By Jan. 11 of this year, it had moved to a location near the entrance to the Red Sea, a choke point known as Bab al-Mandeb strait — or “the Gate of Grief” — according to the ship tracker.
