Israeli commandos seize ship allegedly carrying tons of weapons

Israeli commandos

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
A ship apprehended off the coast of Cyprus by Israeli commandos in a predawn raid on Wednesday was carrying hundreds of tons of weapons, according to the Israeli Navy. Israeli military officials told a press conference in Tel Aviv that the ship was loaded with “40 containers filled with 300 tons of weapons each”, hidden under several rows of civilian goods. Israel insisted that the weapons, which include missiles and rockets, originated from Iran and Syria and were bound for Hezbollah, the Shiite Islamic political and paramilitary organization that controls large parts of Lebanon. But the Syrian foreign minister, Walid al-Moallem, called the Israeli commandos “pirates” and said the seized ship was heading from Syria to Iran, carrying only civilian goods. Israel has yet to release evidence of the ship’s contents, or even name. All it has said is that the vessel flies the Antiguan & Barbudan flag and has a mostly Egyptian crew. According to the Israeli Navy, the ship’s cargo was “first detected during a routine patrol”. But this is would seem unlikely. A subsequent article by Ha’aretz newspaper’s Yossi Melman attributes the ship’s apprehension to Israeli “cooperation with American intelligence bodies and those of France and other countries acting toward the same goal”. It is also worth noting that the Israeli commandos chased the Antiguan-flagged vessel “[i]n coordination with NATO ships”, even though Israel is not a NATO member-state.