Israel Matzav

US and UK raise Iranian arms shipments in Security Council

At a closed session of the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday night, the United States accused Iran of violating an arms embargo by sending weapons to Syria on the Francop, the ship pictured at top left. The United Kingdom expressed 'serious concern' over the arms that Iran shipped to Syria and Hezbullah.

U.S. deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff and British deputy ambassador Philip Parham raised Israel's seizure of the cargo vessel Francop on Nov. 4 off Cyprus during a closed-door council debate on implementation of the 2006 cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon that ended their 34-day war, council diplomats said.

Israel has not provided documentary evidence to back its claims that 36 containers of weapons hidden among hundreds of containers of civilian cargo on the Francop came from Iran and were headed for Lebanon's Hezbollah fighters via Syria. But its contention about the Iranian origin was bolstered by Iranian markings on the side of containers filled with rockets, missiles, mortars, anti-tank weapons and munitions shown to reporters in Israel.

The United States told the council that the concealed arms shipment, "clearly manifested from Iran to Syria" in violation of a March 2007 arms embargo, provides "unambiguous evidence of the destabilizing proliferation of arms in the region," the U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the council meeting was private.

The United States also called on Syria and Iran to end their "material support" for Hezbollah and other militias in Lebanon, which violates the 2006 cease-fire resolution, the U.S. official said.

Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari countered by accusing Israel of committing "an act of piracy on the high seas," and saying it should be held legally accountable, with the issue followed by the Security Council.

"All these rumors circulated by the Israelis are ... the usual Israeli outrageous concoction of lies," he said.

Britain's Parham told reporters after the council meeting that the Francop appears to be the third case of illegal Iranian arms exports this year.

"We hope that Iran will play a part in achieving a secure, peaceful and prosperous Middle East, but its current behavior appears to point in a different direction," Parham said.

Meanwhile, that 'act of piracy on the high seas' has produced conclusive proof that Iran is shipping weapons to Syria and Hezbullah.

The Foreign Ministry disclosed Wednesday that examinations of weapons found on the ship stopped by Israel on the high seas two weeks ago prove that Iran is the source. “An examination of the munitions seized proves conclusively that the source of the arms was Iran. This is clear both from the shipping documents and the markings on the munitions themselves,” it stated.

You can see those markings here. Here's the list of what was on the ship - by the way, the crew had no idea what it was carrying:

--Approximately 9,000 mortar shells;

--3,000 Katyusha rockets;

--3,000 recoilless gun shells;

--20,000 grenades;

-more than half a million rounds of small arms ammunition

If George W. Bush were still President, 'engagement' with Iran would be over. It was Israel's January 2002 seizure of the Karine A weapons ship headed from Iran to the 'Palestinians' (with 10% of the weaponry that was on the Francop) that convinced Bush that Yasser Arafat would never again visit the United States or be a 'peace partner.' But we have a different President now, and he's still waiting for Iran to change its stripes. So, apparently, is the British deputy ambassador to the United Nations.

What could go wrong?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:53 PM