Lebanon authorities detain 'arms ship' crew for questioning
After Israel releases ship found to be carrying tons of weapons apparently to Hezbollah, crew questioned in Beirut.
By Haaretz Service Tags: Lebanon Israel newsLebanese authorities on Friday detained and questioned the crew of the ship aboard which Israeli forces discovered hundreds of tons of weapons on Wednesday, believed to be an Iranian shipment meant for Hezbollah, the French news agency AFP reported.
The Antigua-flagged Fracop was released by Israeli authorities on Thursday, and permitted to resume its original route, which let the ship to the port in Beirut.
"The Francop ship entered Lebanese territorial waters at noon today and, upon its arrival off Beirut port, the navy in cooperation with UN naval forces searched the vessel," read a statement issued by the Lebanese army.
"Military intelligence began interrogating the crew on the motives for the seizure of the vessel while the concerned authorities... will take all the necessary measures to ensure it does not carry banned goods," the statement went on to say.
A massive amount of weapons and ammunition were discovered aboard the Fracop earlier this week when Israeli navy commandos raided the commercial vessel some 180 kilometers from Israel's coast, in the Mediterranean.
A search of the vessel turned up dozens of containers holding over 3,000 rockets, shells, and light ammunition. Navy officials believe that the shipment - which was destined for Syria - included enough weaponry to allow Hezbollah a month's worth of fighting against Israel.
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A container being unloaded form the Fracop at the port of Ashdod on Wednesday. |
| Photo by: (Reuters) |
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IDF boarded ship, found arms and munitions bound for Syria, Hizbullah all shipped from Iran either by the mad mullahs or the Revolutionary guards. Doesnt matter really its all from Iran and against Un resolutions. Lebanese mi,itary intelligence (oxymoron) are interogating the crew on the motioves for the seizure. DUH well could it be that 300 tons of arms and munitions could be a good motive to seize the vessel. As for searching it for weapons, what do you think are the chances that the IDF left any weapons on boards after they emptied every last container searching for these munitions. there are some truly stupid people writting on here, and we should encourage them to continue to do and say stupoid things , thus we will always know who the stupid ones are. Watch for the eng game on this. There were never any arms, and Iran never shipped anything, it was all just an illegal attempt by Israel to frame the mad mullahs and Hizbullah
If you didn't, you wouldn't have what to do
PI: "Where is the uproar, the UN investigations against Iran, Syria, Hezbolla and perhaps Lebanon, the drafting of resolutions backed by the Arab block of nations, the world pointing their fingers at these nations, saying NO NO No and war crime law suits being drafted in the UK and in Europe against the leaders of Iran, Syria and Hezbolla???? " Yeah, such a shame that Israel beats this particular drum so hard that the din is earth-shattering, and Bibi can't rouse anyone out of their slumber. Doesn't It Just Burn You Up? Mind you, the Yemenis intercepted yet another Iranians arms shipment just the other day, and nodoby made a song and dance over that either. Nobody cares, Proud Israeli. Perhaps you best get used to that idea.
did Israel free the ship; if it truly carried weapons; then there is no way on earth that Israel would allow it to continue its journey to the Lebanese waters. It is indeed an Israel's method to get into Hollywood. Israel is just inventing a story so that the world will be distracting away from the Goldestone. Stupid Israel
It wouldn't be a joke if the tachmoshet managed to get thru to it's final destination
No question about Israeli Navy techniques, THEY WORKED LIKE A CHARM
Lebanon and UNIFIL have a vested interest in learning as much as they can about the means of smuggling Iranian arms into Syria. It makes great sense that they would be interested in interrogating the crew.
Where is the uproar, the UN investigations against Iran, Syria, Hezbolla and perhaps Lebanon, the drafting of resolutions backed by the Arab block of nations, the world pointing their fingers at these nations, saying NO NO No and war crime law suits being drafted in the UK and in Europe against the leaders of Iran, Syria and Hezbolla????
The crew is guilty becasue it was supposed to delver illegal smuggled weapons to terrorists and failed becasue it was caught. According to Hezbanese law, this is a serous violation.
What is the question?
It seems as though nobody sent this shipment of goodies and nobody was expecting it. So its finders keepers untill somebody sends the paperwork.Bad news for a lot of the regulars who have been concerned about the legalality of it.
i smell a rat, this was NOT an arms shipment as israel says, this is a plant to legitmise the next war on lebanon and take the heat of israel, those missiles were empty.
Thanks livni wow wasn't 1701 great now UN naval forces act as lebanese propaganda at their orders. I feel so much safer. They don't search any weapons smuggling ships but when lebanon wants them for propaganda purposes they are at the beckon calling. Thanks a lot kadima and livni. Livni was FM at a consequential time and did irreparable damage to israel.
- /move in this matter. i'm really curious.