Israel Matzav

Syria exposes Iranian arms shipment to Hezbullah

Things apparently aren't so good anymore among the tall guy, the fat guy and the midget. Syria is distressed enough by Iran's attempts to control Lebanon through Hezbullah that in September, Syria exposed a plastic explosives shipment from Iran to Hezbullah to Italian authorities. The result was that not only was the shipment discovered, but at least as important, Iran's methods of shipping weapons to Hezbullah were exposed.

In a long and detailed article published last week in the Saudi-owned and London-based newspaper Asharq Al Awsat, she explains that not only were senior Syrian officials far from enthusiastic about Hezbollah's grandiose performance for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when the Iranian president visited Lebanon last month, but Syria also appears to have been responsible for confiscating a large shipment of explosives that Iran was planning to send to Hezbollah via Italy.

According to the article, a container holding seven tons of RDX explosives was confiscated from the deck of the cargo ship Finland in an Italian port on September 22. The ship belongs to MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company, a Swiss shipping line, and was on its way from Iran to Syria. The explosives, which had been sent by Iran's Revolutionary Guards, can be used as ammunition for M-302 missiles, which have a 150-kilometer range, and M-600 missiles, which have a range of 250 kilometers and carry 500-kilogram warheads. The discovery of the explosives was published at the time in the Italian press.

...

The September incident apparently caused heavy damage to the Revolutionary Guards' efforts to send weapons and explosives from Iran to Syria, since it exposed Iranian sources in European countries and the methods Iran had been using to disguise and ship illegal cargo. One possibility is that, as the Italian authorities apparently suspect, Iran may have used close connections with the Italian mafia in the smuggling attempt. This is bolstered by the fact that it was Italy's anti-mafia unit that uncovered the cargo.

...

Both Iran and Syria do have a mutual interest in preserving stability in Lebanon. Tehran doesn't want a civil war, which it fears could cause Iran to lose its foothold in Lebanon, and Damascus is interested in ensuring Hezbollah does not cause a war with Israel that could also lead to an attack on Syria.

For some reason, this dispute does not seem to have affected the presence of Hezbullah weapons storage facilities on Syrian soil. But hang in there. Maybe it will. The Arabs and the Persians have hated each other for centuries.

Heh.

Labels: arms shipments, Hezbullah, Iran, Syria

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:42 PM