Greece holding ship bound for Iran over missiles on board

Greece has been holding a ship bound for Iran for more than a month because its cargo was found to contain components for surface-to-surface missiles.

Meanwhile, the Israel Navy Thursday intercepted a ship from Lebanon that was bound for the Gaza Strip. However, its cargo proved to consist of nothing but a few boxes of food and medicine and 150 bottles of water.

Also Thursday, the United States and several European countries decided at a meeting in Copenhagen to establish an international forum to combat arms smuggling to Gaza. A U.S. State Department official will arrive in Israel today to discuss this issue.

The detention of the Iran-bound ship was reported in the Greek paper Elefterotipia. According to the paper, the Susanna arrived at a port near Athens on December 10 and has been held ever since due to suspicions that it was carrying components for ballistic missiles. An Israeli government source confirmed the report, but declined to elaborate due to the sensitivity of the issue.

The Susanna departed from Slovenia in November, and its final destination was Bandar Abbas in Iran. The Greeks detained it due to intelligence from UN agencies indicating that it was carrying illegal cargo.

A search of the ship found 80 tons of CK22 steel, which can be used to make warheads or fuel pods for surface-to-surface missiles. Moreover, the cargo manifest indicated that this material was destined for an Iranian firm that is under UN Security Council sanctions due to its involvement in Tehran's missile program.

The Copenhagen meeting - at which Israel had only observer status - decided to establish an international forum that would exchange intelligence about smuggling routes from Iran to Gaza, especially by sea, and coordinate efforts to stop the smuggling. The forum's next meeting will be in London in March. A senior Israeli government source said this is "the international community's first attempt to do anything about the smuggling, and it will make life harder for the smugglers."

The Lebanese ship that Israel intercepted had been under observation for two days, ever since it set sail from Tripoli. It first went to Larnaca in Cyprus, and then it headed for Gaza.

Wednesday night, the navy informed the ship's captain that he would not be allowed to enter Gaza's territorial waters, due to the state of war between Israel and Gaza. The captain acknowledged receipt of the message and turned the ship toward Al-Arish in Egypt.

Before dawn yesterday, however, he turned around again and headed for Gaza. The navy again warned him not to approach, but this time he ignored the warning. A naval vessel therefore seized control of the ship and ordered the captain to sail it to Ashdod, where it was searched.

The ship proved to be carrying almost no cargo at all, and none of it was weaponry. However, it was carrying several journalists and Syrian and Lebanese nationals, including Archbishop Hilarion Capucci, who was convicted 35 years ago of smuggling weapons to Fatah in his car, which had diplomatic license plates.