Israel releases ship carrying Iranian weapons (1st Lead)

Nov 5, 2009, 9:22 GMT

Tel Aviv - Israel has released a German-owned, Antiguan- flagged ship which Israeli naval commandos had seized the day before with a cargo of hundreds of tonnes of weapons from Iran to the Lebanese Hezbollah guerrilla group, Israel Radio reported.

The contents of the 36 shipping containers in which the weapons had been hidden had been seized. The ship and its 12-man crew were now on their way to their original destination.

Israel commandos seized the ship, the Francop, before dawn Wednesday, as it was sailing 160 kilometres off the coast of Israel in international waters.

After the ship was redirected to the southern Israeli port of Ashdod, the contents of the 36 large shipping containers containing the arms were laid out on the dock.

Television footage showed hundreds of boxes with rockets, including 122-millimetre Russian-style Katyushas, as well as anti- tank and artillery shells, hand grenades and ammunition for semi- automatic weapons, worth tens of millions of dollars.

Commodore Rani Ben-Yehuda, the Israel Navy Chief-of-Staff, told reporters the amount was enough to sustain Hezbollah through one month of fighting with Israel.

Israeli defence officials said Thursday morning that following the seizure of the ship, Tehran will probably try to find new routes to smuggle arms to Hezbollah.

The unnamed officials told Israel Army Radio that they thought the seizure of the ship would not deter Iran from continuing its efforts to arm Hezbollah.

Israel and Hezbollah fought a bitter 33-day war in the summer of 2006. Israel said the weapons on board the Francop was a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 which imposed an arms embargo on the Lebanese guerrilla group.