ROUNDUP Israel releases ship carrying Iranian weapons

Nov 5, 2009, 14:20 GMT

Tel Aviv/Beirut - The Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah movement denied Thursday Israeli accusations that an arms shipment intercepted by Israeli commandos was meant for the group, and condemned what it described as 'piracy in international waters.'

Israeli officials however persisted in their charges that the weapons found hidden in shipping containers on board the German- owned, Antiguan-flagged Francop were sent from Iran to Hezbollah, and invited foreign diplomats stationed in Israel to inspect the hundreds of tons of weapons seized.

Israeli commandos boarded the Francop before dawn Wednesday when it was sailing in international waters, 160 kilometres off the coast of Israel.

After finding the weapons hidden in 36 of the shipping containers stored in the ship's hold, the Israelis brought the vessel to the southern port of Ashdod, where the containers were unloaded.

The ship and its crew were released Wednesday night and sailed for their original destination. According to Israel Radio, the Francop's captain was shocked to discover that he was carrying weapons, and shocked that the weapons, which included explosives, were stored in the hold, next to drums containing oil.

The weapons seized included 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.

Since the 2006 Lebanon war between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel has repeatedly complained that both Syria and Iran continue to supply Hezbollah with weapons, despite UN resolution 1701 which ended the war and imposed an arms embargo on the movement.

The invitation to foreign diplomats to inspect the arms seized is part of a concerted Israeli public relations effort against Iran and its proxies in the Middle East.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry has asked Israeli diplomats abroad to exploit the seizure of the ship to direct international pressure toward Iran.

The diplomats were also instructed to stress Iran's violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions forbidding it from supplying weapons to Syria or Hezbollah, the Ha'aretz daily reported.

'What is at stake are weapons that are aimed at a civilian population, weapons that are smuggled contrary to all UN resolutions,' Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israel Radio.

'We have been saying loudly that Hezbollah and Hamas were being armed by Iran and now we have clear proof that this is the situation that we're dealing with,' the Ma'ariv daily quoted a 'high-ranking diplomatic official' as saying.

'Iran continues to send arms to Hamas and Hezbollah, ignoring the UN and the international community,' the official said.

The seizure of the ship came as the UN was debating a particularly harsh report slamming Israel prosecution of its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip at the turn of the year.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that instead of investigating Israel's war with Hamas, the international community should turn its attention to what he termed 'a war crime which Iran intends to commit again in the future.'

'The international community should be focusing on this, but instead, the world condemns Israel and the Israel Defence Force and undermines our right to self defence,' he said.