The secret buying and selling of Iranian crude oil continues in South-East Asia, ignoring or evading all sanctions and obstacles.
Al Jazeera reported on Thursday (30 July) that a huge Iranian oil tanker 330 metres long, named “Humanity,” passed through the Strait of Malacca and Singapore last Saturday. It then turned to the north-east and set out towards the Malaysian coast, switching off its digital position tracking system, or AIS, signal.
According to satellite tracking data, the tanker reached a stretch of water 1,200 square kilometres in extent known as the Eastern Outer Port Limits (EOPL), 70 kilometres off the Malaysian coast in the South China Sea.
Maritime security experts say Humanity switched off its signal and slipped out of sight in order to prepare to transfer oil to another vessel lying in mid-ocean. This is known as a “ship-to-ship” transfer, in which fuel is secretly poured into an intermediary’s vessel in mid-ocean. According to the experts, the final destination of this oil is China. Information from the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission indicates that China has historically been the main buyer of about 90 percent of the crude oil exported from Iran.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report