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PM: Iran's arms shipment to Hezbollah is war crime
By Barak Ravid

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that Iran's efforts to smuggle arms to Hezbollah on a cargo ship that was intercepted by Israel on Wednesday are a war crime that should be investigated by the international community. Israel yesterday launched a diplomatic campaign against Iran, the Goldstone report and the United Nations debate on the report.

"This was a ship carrying a massive amount of weapons that Iran tried to ship to Syria, and from there to Hezbollah," Netanyahu said in a news conference yesterday at Tel Aviv defense headquarters.
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"The bulk of the shipment included rockets intended to hurt Israelis and kill as many civilians as possible. This constitutes a war crime. The UN General Assembly should have investigated and condemned this crime and the UN Security Council should have convened a special session to debate this incident," Netanyahu said.

"Iran intends to commit this war crime again in the future. The international community should be focusing on this, but instead, the world condemns Israel and the Israel Defense Forces and undermines our right to self-defense," he said, referring to Wednesday's UN General Assembly debate over the Goldstone report, which accuses Israel of having committed war crimes in the Gaza Strip last winter.

"It is time the international community, at least the more responsible countries, recognize the reality and refrain from promoting a lie," Netanyahu said.

The Iranian-backed Hezbollah denied that the arms were bound for them. The organization issued a statement denouncing the "Israeli piracy," referring to the interception of the ship in international waters.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mualem said earlier yesterday the ship was carrying commercial cargo from Syria to Iran and carried neither weapons nor weapon-manufacturing equipment.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak, IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and Israel Navy Commander Eliezer Marom lauded the commandos who carried out the operation which culminated in the seizure of some 300 tons of weapons.

Military Intelligence head Amos Yadlin said the arms shipment offers proof of the "Iranian octopus," saying, "This isn't just about weapons, but also about money used to fund terror and weapons and the training of Hamas and Hezbollah operatives in Iran."

The Foreign Ministry instructed Israeli representations around the world to take advantage of the incident to call for exert international pressure on Iran.

In a circular, diplomats were instructed to stress Iran's violation of UN Security Council resolutions forbidding it to export weapons and ammunition or to supply weapons to Syria or Hezbollah.

Diplomats were urged to emphasize in interviews and conferences that the ship was seized en route to Syria, with a planned stop in Beirut, and that the Israel Navy, which diverted the ship to Ashdod, acted with the crew's cooperation.

The Foreign Ministry asked embassies and consulates to issue a statement saying "Iran is continuing to smuggle weapons to terror organizations in the guise of legitimate international trade."
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