Iranian container ships may have docked at the Port of Antwerp as part of an espionage mission, a Follow The Money investigation has revealed.
Following conversations with Western security officials, Follow The Money revealed that the Iranian container ship 'Shiba' had "lingered" off the coast of Yemen during i11 separate voyages between Iran and Belgium.
Each period of time spent drifting in the area was followed by a Houthi attack on a US or Western-owned container ship. The Yemeni group is attacking international ships in solidarity with Palestinian group Hamas and its war with Israel in Gaza.
Shiba appears to have transmitted the details of multiple US or Western-owned container ships to the Houthis before they were targeted with missiles. The FTM investigation found that five other ships that dock in Antwerp – the Artam, Artenos, Azargoun, Daisy and Kashan – are also suspected of using commercial trade as a cover for espionage.
Other missions
The ships may also be delivering arms, weapon components and dual-use items to other Iranian allies, such as the Lebanese group Hezbollah, which would have received the deliveries via the former Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad. When Assad fell, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said the group had lost its Syrian supply.
Six ships travelling between Iran and Belgium regularly stopped at Syrian ports: 27 times between June 2022 and October 2024. Some of these were 'dark port calls' – when vessels turn their AIS off so that the visits are not registered in international shipping data. Shiba made one such call.
The Azargoun and Artam also docked at the Russian port of Novorossiysk.
An Antwerp port docker. Credit: Belga / Jonas Roosens
Ships searched
Belgian security services tried and failed to catch one of the ships, the Argazoun, in June last year. They searched the vessel but found no weapons or evidence of the presence of weapons. Previously, the ship was subject to a random inspection in March 2023 and was kept in custody for 24 days before being released by the port authorities.
All six ships belong the Iranian company Hafez Darya Arya Shipping (HDS), which intelligence sources believe is a front for the Iranian state shipping company IRISL. IRISL provides information to the Iranian Defence Ministry and is on US and EU sanction lists, meaning that the six Iranian ships can no longer dock at the port of Antwerp.
"IRISL is listed in the databases as the beneficial owner of the ships. That is sufficient for us to stop the ships," Ministry of Mobility and Transport spokesperson, Thomas de Spiegelaere, told FTM.
"There are no sanctions against Iranian ships in general," he added. "We are not bound by the American sanctions against Iran and will therefore not follow them."
