Mysterious Iranian ‘Spy’ Ship Returns Home As Israel-Iran Conflict Worsens 

A suspected Iranian spy ship that its own government calls an “intelligence and logistics” vessel returned home this week after a three-year mis, as well as more recently lingering near Yemen for months. 

The Iranian ‘spy ship’ BEHSHAD (9167289), which had a hand in the Red Sea Crisis by assisting Houthis in launching attacks against commercial and naval vessels over the past several months, has now returned to Iran after a 3-year deployment. We were able to verify her in… pic.twitter.com/NqJ3LYdIWY

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The MV Behshad entered the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday and moored off Bandar Abbas, a port city located on the southern coast of Iran, on Thursday. 

Several reports, including one from The Wall Street Journal in December, suggest the vessel was directly assisting Yemen’s Houthi forces with targeting commercial ships in the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the southern Red Sea. 

“Iran’s paramilitary forces are providing real-time intelligence to Yemen’s Houthis that the rebels are using to direct drones and missiles to target ships passing through the Red Sea, Western and regional security officials said,” WSJ wrote in the report, citing Western intelligence sources. 

In March, we pointed out that Behshad moored near the area where undersea data cables linking several continents were severed. 

Behshad’s return to Iran comes as the Israel-Iran conflict deteriorated, with both countries volleying missiles and drones at each other in recent days.

“The ship is likely viewed as one of the targets Israel may hit in the future,” said Michael Horowitz, the head of intelligence at Le Beck International, a security and risk management consultancy, in a post on X.

Interesting Bloomberg report about the Iranian intelligence ship, Bershad, which has returned to #Iran since April 1 – incidently we’ve see a dip in Houthi attacks.

The ship is likely viewed as one of the targets Israel may hit in the futurehttps://t.co/IcRB5bOM4J

— Michael A. Horowitz (@michaelh992) April 18, 2024

Iran’s state media hasn’t commented on Behshad’s movements.