Israel Matzav

Iranian lawmakers heading to Gaza via Lebanon

As I reported in the wee hours of Friday morning, Iran blinked on sending its own boat to Gaza on Thursday, leaving its lawmakers scrambling to find a way to get in on the year's biggest anti-Zionist show thus far. But fear not. The intrepid Iranian lawmakers plan to make their way to Gaza via Lebanon.

Iranian parliamentarian Mahmoud Ahmadi Beighash announced Saturday that he and other Iranian lawmakers intend to join a ship headed for Gaza by way of Lebanon.

"A ship is going from Lebanon to Gaza in the course of the current week and the lawmakers will go to Gaza via this ship," Beighash said in comments to semi-official news agency ISNA cited by Reuters.

The decision to head from Lebanon to Gaza and not Egypt was reached in a meeting with speaker of parliament Ali Larijani according to Beighash.

Earlier in the week an Iranian aid ship which had been due to set sail for the Gaza Strip in the coming days in an attempt to break the Israeli blockade canceled its trip due to Israeli warnings, Iranian officials said Thursday night.

The Iranian ship called Infants of Gaza had been expected to sail Sunday for Gaza carrying 1,100 tons of relief supplies and 10 pro-Palestinian activists but plans were canceled "due to restrictions imposed by the occupying Zionist regime," Beighash said.

IDF sources said that the navy would intercept an Iranian or Lebanese ships and would operate under the assumption that hostile elements could be aboard.

There's no word yet on Lebanon giving approval for ships to sail to Gaza, nor is their word on Cyprus giving approval for ships to sail to Gaza that arrive in Cyprus from Lebanon. Heh.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:52 PM