ANALYSIS / Arms ship seizure just another battle in the secret war with Iran
Israel shouldn't congratulate itself too much for intercepting hundreds of tons of weapons apparently meant for Hezbollah.
By Yossi Melman Tags: Iran Israel newsThe significance of Israel's interception of a ship carrying hundreds of tons of weapons, which defense officials are saying were Iranian arms meant for Hezbollah, is not in the quantity or the quality of the weapons seized. The importance, as far as Israel is concerned, is that the Israel Navy, which has long viewed the Mediterranean Sea as "our sea", is stepping up efforts to intercept cargo coming out of Iran.
Wednesday's operation, in which Israeli forces seized the Antigua-flagged Francop and unloaded the largest arms shipment Israel has ever commandeered, is the latest in a long line of operations with a similar goal, some of which Israel took credit for, and some of which were attributed to Israel's air force or navy. In fact, Israel is waging a secret war, which is sometimes not so secret, with Iran, against the backdrop of Iran's constant efforts to arm the organizations it supports, especially Hezbollah and Hamas.
This war began far from Israel's beaches, in the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. In January, in the midst of the war in Gaza, an attack of a fleet of weapons-carrying ships sailing from Iran on its way to Gaza was attributed to the Israel Air Force, as were the sinking of several similar ships.
Israel's daring, in terms of its actions against Iranian arms smuggling, is supported by an international diplomatic embrace, and intelligence. The diplomatic legitimacy and the legal justification for Israel's actions stem from United Nations Security Council resolutions forbidding Iran from exporting weapons to Syria, to be transferred into the hands of Hezollah. Israel is acting with the full cooperation of international NATO forces that patrol the Indian Ocean, Red Sea and Mediterranean, in efforts to battle arms smuggling.
The international diplomatic support is manifested in Israel's ability to pinpoint weapons shipments coming from Iran, in cooperation with American intelligence bodies and those of France and other countries acting toward the same goal. The commander of the Israel Navy, who gave a press conference Wednesday afternoon, said in his briefing that the ship was discovered as a result of routine patrols and observation - these claims could merely be the navy's way of explaining the fact that it had previous intelligence regarding the ship's cargo which allowed them to carry out precise surveillance and intercept the ship. If in fact this is a case of previous intelligence, it demonstrates good intelligence capabilities, starting possibly from the ship's point of origin in the port of Bandar Abbas in Iran, onto the Egyptian port which served as a transfer point for the delivery.
The method used to transfer the weapons indicates that Iran is under growing international pressure regarding its weapons shipments to Syria, Hamas and Hezbollah. This pressure stems form the Security Council resolutions that imposed international sanctions on Iran's state-run shipping company as a result of Iran's refusal to abandon its controversial nuclear program. The Iranians know that they can't use Iranian ships to transport these weapons, so they tend to lease foreign ships, as was the case last month with a German ship, waving a German flag.
In this instance, in order to prevent surveillance, the Iranians used a ship that appeared to carry civilian cargo out of the Iranian port, headed for Egypt. The Iranians believed that it would be easier to conceal the arms shipment if they used the Egyptian port as the point of transfer, loading the ship with the weapons there, hoping that it wouldn't be traced back to Iran. But they failed.
The 122 mm. rockets and 107 mm. Katyushas that were discovered aboard the ship are not impressive in themselves. In fact, the unimpressive cargo raises questions, because Hezbollah already has massive amounts of these weapons. The Iranians could have shipped these weapons in a simpler way - fly them directly to Syria and then into Lebanon by land - but they knew that Israel is aware of this smuggling route and has alerted the international community to its existence, and that the UN has issued several complaints to the Syrian government for violating UN resolutions. The only explanation can be that the Iranian effort involves the use of every available route, whether by land, air or sea, operating on the assumption that if some of the shipments are blocked, intercepted or seized, others will still arrive at the desired destination.
Israel shouldn't congratulate itself too much for this success, because it is just another operation in a string of operations comprising an ongoing cat and mouse endeavor. The Iranians will continue to smuggle weapons to their proxies and Israel will continue trying to expose and intercept them.
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The Iranian vessel seized by Israel. |
| Photo by: (Ilan Assayag) |
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hezbollah has 40,000 rockets. this is nothing.
smearing your enemies. The german Kriegmarine has gone by 8.5.1945. The new german navy is called BUNDESMARINE (federal navy) If you describe something in anotjher language than correct. Hate and bad emotions are not very efficient. PS The Kriegsmarine is a synonym for a Nazi component. And by the way the vessel was off the coast of Cyprus, not in the area of operation of the maritime component of UNIFIL. Well done by the IDF but with the support of....
We will do what ever is necessary to stay alive "We shall fight them at the beaches?" so to speak We shall congratulate ourselves a little As we also know how to put ourselves down vigorously more often than necessary . "We are assured that novel methods will be adopted, and when we see the originality of malice, the ingenuity of aggression, which our enemy displays, we may certainly prepare ourselves for every kind of novel stratagem and every kind of brutal and treacherous maneuver." An inspiration
The navy now has a ship they can convert into some kind of weapons platform to patrol the Gaza coast or use as target practice because there is no way this ship is going to be returned to whoever its registered with. Also the army has lots of weapons to either make use of or sell and buy more domestic weapons. Best of all the terrorists didn't get their hands on all these weapons to use against Israel.
Israel missing out on a weapons sale? Israel is a potent weapons exporter. Too bad someone didn't confiscate the weapons Israel sent to Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Africa, Latin America, Georgia... a lot of human suffering would have been prevented!
While Iran was breaking UN rules so did Israel by boarding a ship outside their waters, the ship should have been taken to nearest port for inspection. This could help push the Goldstone report to ICC faster.
What if this was just a bogus delivery attempt, to check the Israel navy operation mode? The shipment was identified very easy, and it has no military significance and value for Hezbolah. What if the next one will end up in a big explosion in Ashdod port?
A very dangerous game. All nations are concerne3d, not just the local.
I wonder if Goldstone has been updated on this adventure so he cannot say that Israel had in the past used 'disproportinate' force, and why should'nt they with the 300 tons of rockets, etc for use against civilians, is 'nt this 'disproportinate' rockets against civilians?? Come on Goldstone, dont stay mum, speak the truth.
Actually, Israel should indeed congratulate itself very much for this raid. Obviously the fool that says Israel should not do so, is one fool in every sense of the word!
no matter what israel does, they will eventually keep them coming.
Yes, Orifice, you must be correct since it has been proven that Israel was the perpetrator of the WTC attacks on 9-11 as well as the rockets fired into Israel from the south of Lebanon last week. We know this is true because the president of Lebanon, a so-called Suleiman, said it was. "After all, Israel probably sent the ship itself so it can use this incident as a precept to make war on Iran, according to leftist theory."
Israel should return the arms to Iran, using them according to instructions provided
I was hoping you would demonstrate your cocern about actions of the free world by calling the free world to stop Israels violation of human rights, commiting war crimes against the Palestinias including targeting civilians, using civilians as human shields, ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem and many many more while being bankrolled by cash in liue of the war crimes committed by the free wrld agaisnt European Jews.
out?
Iran is a very shaky state with lots of eyes and ears that hate the ayatollahs and their political puppets like Ahmadinijad. Just watch it crumble from within and when it does it will be like a breath of fresh air blowing through the whole region.
If all our navy caught was Katyushas and 122 mm rockets, then how many ships with more sophisticated weaponry are getting through?
Granted, Israel has a lot of work to do to stop the smuggling of weapons and there is no doubt that somewhere along the lines, Hezbollah is getting what it needs. Lets give Israel a pat on the back? Shall we? Israel did something, its stopped a ship, those weapons could have been used against civilians and other Israeli infrastructure. Why should Israel constantly have to lick its wounds and go unpraised for the good it does? The fact that the Israeli navy stopped this ship and I am sure others is an excellent achievement and Israel should use this success to boost moral and support for their continuing efforts to stem the tide.
Unless I am wrong, this is exactly the kind of thing that the UN forces deployed after Leb-II were supposed to prevent. That IDF has to do this job is a sad fact that the UN does not care to keep its part of the deal. Neither will the UN keep any of its other promises when the time comes. Prime Minister Netanyahu is hiding the truth from the people, that he has no one to talk to in the world today. Even the US under Barak Hussein Obama is not giving him anything more than 15 min of time on the sidelines of conferences once in 3 months.
Did catching that ship change anything? Will this one?
No need for the world, especially the Arabs and Iranian's, to know about IDF ops. None! The Iranians maybe a lot of things, stupid is not one of them.
To the author: congratulation-Jews can not have a success viva self defeating ghetto minded leftist
... OK, we read your article.... But I am still strugling to understand: On which side are you??? You almost sound happy, at Israel's (IDF's) struggle...
The free world does nothing while Iran undermines Yemen as witnessed last week by Yemenite seizure of Iran ship with arms destined for Shiite fighters in Northern Yemen. The free world does nothing while Iran undermines Morocco as witnessed recently by Moroccan seizure of Iran ship with arms destined for Polissario. The free world does nothing while Iran undermines Lebanon as witnessed today by Israeel's seizure of Antiguan ship which loaded 500 tons of weapons in Iran destined for Syria to be shipped to Hizbollah in Lebanon for weapons meant to fire on civilians in Israel. Iran's quiet to charges, while Syrian FM mumbles. The free world forgets, mumbles, and does nothing about Iran's mass producing of weapons destined all over the world to undermine the free world, not to mention shiite mullah's race to mass produce nukes
Israel shouldn't congrutulate itself. After all, Israel probably sent the ship itself so it can use this incident as a precept to make war on Iran, according to leftist theory.
These Iranian weapons must be legal to use in Gaza. So Israel should drop them on Hamas.
-t. Their only activity was sending an unanounced helicopter over Israel and protest when Israeli fighter jets reacted