Covert action: Israel intercepts arms shipment to Gaza

Tehran denies involvement, calls it ‘totally without foundation’.

JERUSALEM:

Israeli naval commandos on Wednesday intercepted an alleged Iranian covert shipment of advanced rockets bound for organizations operating in the Gaza Strip, claiming it proved Tehran could not be trusted in international nuclear talks.

Israel has long accused Iran and Syria of providing military aid to Hezbollah and to Palestinian militant groups, and the military spokesman’s office tweeted that the ship was carrying weapons “capable of striking anywhere in Israel.”

Iran’s Arabic-language Al Alam television channel quoted a military official in the Islamic republic as denying the Israeli report, calling it ‘totally without foundation’.

Israel has latched onto the weapons shipment to chide Western powers for negotiating with Iran over its nuclear programme. “While Iran is conducting these talks, smiling to the international community, it continues to arm terrorist groups, continues to perpetrate terrorism around the world,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, currently in the United States, said in a statement.

According to Israeli military sources, the Syrian-made weapons aboard the “Klos-C” were shipped overland to Iran and then onward towards Gaza by sea before being intercepted in the Red Sea between Sudan and Eritrea. Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner told reporters that “dozens” of surface-to-surface M302 Syrian-manufactured rockets were found aboard the ship, adding that the crew had “fully cooperated”. Lerner said Israel had followed the shipment for “several months” and that the military knew “for a fact” the Iranians were behind it.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 6^th, 2014.