Israel Matzav

Liveblog of bloggers' briefing with Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich, Head of the Foreign Press Branch, about capture of Victoria weapons ship

Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich, Head of the Foreign Press Branch, has confirmed to a group of bloggers that early on Tuesday morning, IDF fighters boarded the Victoria at sea some 200 miles out from Israel. The Victoria is a German-owned vessel, operated by a French operating company, and flying the Liberian flag. Although Lt. Col. Leibovich did not say which IDF units were involved, other sources have reported that Shayetet 13, the Naval commando unit that was involved in the Mavi Marmara raid last year, carried out this raid as well.

The IDF boarded the ship based on information that the ship might be carrying weaponry. The boarding party opened three containers and found weapons and ammunition in one or more of them. As a result, the Victoris is currently under escort to an Israeli port (previous reports have indicated Ashdod, but our source did not say that), where the cargo will be examined. The ship's crew did not resist the IDF boarding party.

The ship originated out of Latakia, which is in Syria, and also passed through Mersin, which is in Turkey. The IDF believes that the ship's final destianation was Alexandria in Egypt, and from there its cargo would be shipped over land to Gaza.

The IDF believes that that neither Egypt nor Turkey has any connection to the ship's cargo. The evidence it has indicates that Syria and Iran were the main actors.

The IDF will not say yet what types of weapons they found on the ship. But the type of weapons is not important . What is critical is that the ship, which the IDF has tied directly to Syria, was carrying weapons that were headed for terror organizations in Gaza.

The IDF did not notify anyone in advance that it was going to board the ship. The IDF informed the Germans, the French, the Liberians and the Americans only after it had opened the three containers mentioned above. Intriguingly, Lt. Col. Leibovich did not answer when asked whether the Germans and French knew what was on the ships when they were contacted. This raises three possibilities: 1. They didn't know. 2. They did know and had given Israel intelligence information. 3. They did know because they were in on the weapons smuggling. I'd bet on number 2.

Lt. Col. Leibovich did not know whether the weapons were connected to the Iranian warships that passed through the Suez Canal three weeks ago. But given that those ships sailed to Latakia - and then went right back through the Canal - this is a distinct possibility.

Lt. Col. Leibovich did not know whether the crew knew what they were carrying. Others have already reported that the crew did not know.

Curiously, Lt. Col. Leibovich could not say when the boat left Syria. After Lt. Col. Leibovich could not answer that question, we were told that there is information that she cannot share with us right now. That's not surprising.

According to Lt. Col. Leibovich, the most important fact here is that the IDF can draw direct line from Syria to the attempt to smuggle weapons into Gaza. The weapons are Iranian.

I hope to have pictures and video later today. The ship is expected to reach an Israeli port tonight.

Labels: Germany, Iran, Liberia, Syria, Turkey, weapons shipment, weapons smuggling

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:10 PM