UN report finds no evidence of arms smuggling to Lebanon

Stick to feeding kids and refugees (and similar causes), and disband all other UN Committees, Councils and activities related to countries, their politics and security. Unfortunately, the UN is now defunct, useless and counterproductive to world peace and security - no matter who's side you are on.

What can really be done with this imbeciles of the UN?

"Any breach of it is a violation of Lebanese sovereignty and threatens the stability of the country and the region," Ban added. Like Israeli overflights....

There's a great scene in the movie "Patton" (about Gen George C Patton in WWII) in which he is in a meeting of top allied generals and complains to his British counterpart that the German Luftwaffe is continues to be a threat American troops in North Africa. The British general assures him with total authority that the RAF has the situation completely under control, and he needed worry any more about German air attacks. Then within seconds, their HQ comes under sudden air attack by a German fighter bomber and all the generals have to duck under a table for cover from machine gun fire. Patton calmly says the British general while they're lying under the table, "Now, General. About those airplanes . . ."

i had sent you a post that did not come out. so let me be very brief. are you saying that the un is not corrupt and is not made up of majority totalitarian countries; are you saying that despite an automatic vote against israel, israel can get a fair hearing; or are you saying, that it is too bad, it does not matter, and israel just has to put up with this situation or else leave. is the un functioning the way it should function in general?

Wasn't it the UN that supervised the genocide at Sebranitsa ? [Apologies for the spelling.] Wasn't it the UN that pulled out of Egypt to help the Egyptians attack Israel ? I can't remember the last time the UN stopped arms smuggling, but then I'm only as old as the UN.

UNIFIL sees no evil. Lebanon speaks no evil. UN hears no evil.

All the Israel bashers like to say Israel plays by their own rules because it has US backing but in reality it's Lebanon that gets a free pass on everyting from the UN. Lebanon allows a terrorist entity to control 1/2 it's country and dictate policy, start wars, kidnap foreign nationals and the international community does nothing.

juge, - most of the resolutions you're referring to are UNGA resolutions, ie of the general assembly, which aren't legally binding & nobody's expecting implementation /'enforcement' of them. the one important exception is UNSCR 242, but even that one is split down the middle as to its interpretation. most people have understood the game being played in the UN, incl. the legal game, & how it twists & turns mostly in one direction, ie against israel. it's the general UN bias we object to: both in proportion & in always being harsher towards israel than anybody else. the whole body gets activated immediately & real "teeth" applied when israel's involved, the latest example being goldstone. (imagine goldstone building his case on evidence solely provided by the state of israel) when the UN once in a while p-r-e-t-e-n-d-s to be doing something against anybody else, but laughably like in the case of hezbollah (in spite of backing by a real UNSCR), it should be revealed mercilessly.

Sure Israel can complain about the "teethlessness" of the UN in Lebanon. But when it comes down to UN resolutions concerning Israel, Israelis are just too glade that they won't be implemented as intended by UN for exactly the same reason. So either you complain about UNIFIL and also lament the lack of implementation of the UN resolutions concerning Israel or you just shut up and live with it. you can't have both, especially not as long Israel actively undermines the UN's credibility through non-implementation.

or put another way: see no evil speak no evil hear no evil. Unless they are discussing Israel. The UN was, is and continues to be a joke!!

Which required all non-government militias to stand down and disarm. Hizballah shouldn't have been receiving weapons prior to 2006. But most certainly, if the Lebanese government is going to adhere to its own internal treaties, that 1701 combined with the earlier obligations, would prevent Hizballah from receiving weapons approved by the government of Lebanon.

Captured Iranian arms ship tip of the iceberg of vast weapons sealift to Hizballah DEBKAfile Exclusive Report November 4, 2009, 11:03 PM (GMT+02:00) Iranian weapons unloaded from Francop at Ashdod DEBKAfile's military and intelligence sources report that a mammoth arms train has been running to Hizballah for months via Egypt. They identify the ship which offloaded the arms shipment at the Egyptian port of Damietta, where it was picked up by the Francop as the Iranian Visea, which is now on its way from the British port of Felixtowe to Hamburg, Germany. An international operation is afoot to apprehend the Iranian ship as of Wednesday, Nov. 4, when Israeli naval forces commandeered the Francop with hundreds of tons of Iranian arms bound for the Lebanese Hizballah near Cyprus. The arms were unloaded at the Israeli naval base at Ashdod port. The Visea was formerly called Iran Zanian. She is owned by the IRISL corporation, Iran's national shippers. The estimated 500 of tons of weapons aboard were concealed inside sacks of polyethylene and loaded aboard the Visea either at Bandar Abbas or Bandar Imam Khomeini in Iran. It sailed on Oct. 14, docking at Dubai's Jabel Ali on Oct. 18, after which it wound its way through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, reaching Damietta port Monday, Oct. 26. Our sources stress that the containers and their hidden arms freight stood on Egyptian docks for seven days until Nov. 1, when the German ship Francop collected it for delivery at Beirut. The Francop is known as a ?feeder ship,? which circulates between regular ports of call beginning at Damietta, thence to Limassol in Cyprus and from there to Beirut, Lebanon, Port Latakia, Syria, and back. Neither the owners nor the crew knew about the concealed arms cargo, which was not recorded in the ship's documents carried from the port of departure. These documents were left behind by the Iranian Visea. DEBKAfile's counter-terrorism sources report pressing questions arise about Egypt's security procedures in the Suez Canal and its Mediterranean ports, when Iran has managed for months to run a sealift of arms from Iran to Syria and Hizballah, under the noses of Egyptian security and intelligence authorities. These sources ask what would have happened if one of the Iranian arms ships plying their waters with hundreds of tons of missiles, rockets, shells and explosives aboard were to blow up in the middle of the Suez Canal. This vital waterway would have been blocked for many weeks, triggering a fresh international financial crisis. As recently as October, when the German freighter Hansa India was discovered carrying Iranian arms and ammunition destined for Lebanon, the Berlin government ordered it to sail straight to Malta, after a tip-off from Israeli intelligence. There, the containers were unloaded and found to contain the Iranian arms. To disguise its vast traffic of illicit arms to Lebanon, Iran has taken to using commercial "feeder" vessels which are frequently seen on regular tours around the Mediterranean ports and arouse little attention. By this route, Hizballah has received thousands of tons of arms and ammunition in the last few months.

not work. In such a situation, f.e. in the normal business world you leave such a rotten company. Maybe you make with such a step a favour for yourself and the rest of the world.The permanent UN bashing leads to nothing, like the Israel bashing on the other side. To say that the rest of the world is dumb and corrupt is also not a solution. A friendly farewell.

you are suffering from the heat of truth- when you condemn israel for distorting the truth, you reveal your menu of disdain for a country whose enemies are bent on her destruction. a true bigot and anti-semite displys marvelous imagination which you seem to be suffering from. Not enough spice in your life which make you suspect of any move Israel makes- seek help before you get burnt all the way with your silliness.

The rotting corpse of the UN does nothing but take up valuable real estate in NY while supporting terrorists and radical regimes. Of course their report is ridiculous--just like all the others where Israel is concerned. Why Israel continues to participate in anything the Un does or says is beyond me.

The UN is worthless in monitoring weapon smuggling. Honestly... this is not their strong suit, not in Africa, Asia or the Middle East. The diplomatic process is simply to squeamish to preform that task. Why assign this kind of responsibility to that organization. Let the UN hold multi-lateral discussions, report on world poverty status or execute humanitarian relief efforts. Instead of expecting results the UN simply can't provide.

So one country intercepts arms from a supplying country to a country that wants the arms. The intercepting country has hostile relations with supplier and supplied, so good on it for intercepting the arms. But the intercepting country cannot in all seriousness expect that the world will jump to its defense when itself supplies arms to other countries, clearly without too much regard for the countries on which the arms will be used. Therefore, unless Israel has appointed itself as the global adjudicator of just and moral wars it should just keep on stopping arms bound to hostile countries when it can and really shut up about it. Israel is living in a moral bubble that keeps inflating. Everyone knows what happens to excessively inflated bubbles

...and all those rockets that Hezbollah already has just materialized out of thin air.

Its like a Christmas Pantomime Audience: The SMUGGLING is RIGHT BEHIND YOU! Ugly Sisters (UN): No THEY ARE NOT! Audience: YES THEY ARE! Yup this UN Investigation IS A PANTOMIME!

ow come on. UN report after UN report against Israel. Look to the people who works for the UN , all political placed people. What would be the difference between a report by the UN or a report by Syria for example? Our navy showed this week the evidence of arms smuggling. So this whole UN report was not covering the truth. So what about the other UN reports? And the future UN reports ? Why should anyone believe or read them anyway?

did the UN really expect lebanon to report on hezbollah? next thing we'll hear is iran didn't give the UN any evidence of arms supplies to hamas. please, stop this comedy, mr ban, or just don't say anything at all.

Israeli military forces to leave Lebanon in it's entirety. Why then are Israel forces in the town of Ghajar? So if Israel will not abide by 1701 why should anyone else?

then it can't really complain if the other side does so too. y'know - constant overflights and refusing to give up occupied Lebanese land and all that. smuggling in some weapons to defend Lebanese soil seems to be the only sensible response, and is clearly a 'lesser' violation than those carried out by Israel

Israel says it captures a ship with arms,with no proof. but its israel we have to believe them they never break rules,except the UN rules but Israel thinks there corrupt but Israel wants Iran to follow the UN's rules.Of course Israel was created by the UN.Israel thinks everyone else should follow the UN except them because Israel is above everything because God promised them that there above human rights law.

How about Israel abides by UN resolution 242. Then we can discuss other entities abiding by UN resolutions that refer to them. Or is Israel a special case that doesn't have to abide by what it expects the rest of Planet Earth to?

I thought the hijacking of the ship on Tuesday night was staged anyway, it would be very easy for Israel to arrange the loading of arms in Egypt, and now we have the publication of this report we know why. Problem is the Zionists amongst the diaspora and the Jewish settler/terrorists will now scream blue murder because nobody agrees with their world view. Which is fine I suppose except Israel is illegally occupying land that is not theirs and has access to nuclear weapons. And the more irratic the behaviour of the Israeli leadership is the scarier that combination becomes. There is a possibility that Lieberman will be Prime Minister, imagine him with his finger on the button behaving like he is as Foreign Minister? It would make the Mullahs in Iran look like rank amateurs.

That's the UN for you. They can't find what is under their noses.... Wjat a Joke!!

Are they getting their weapons? Ever think about that UN?

Lebanon denies that they're being supplied with illegal weapons. The UN believes it. Useless Nonsense

Mayybe the UN is a useless Organization for Israel. This is your decision. Leave the UN and let the US doing your job. Switzerland was for nearly 60 year a non-member and survived.Since 1948 400.000 UN Soldiers secured (not defending) the borders of Israels, you should come to an end. This is a question of Honor. But ? Do the IDF leadership has a clue what you are suggesting ? Certainly not, than Bibi asked for the extension of General Graziano. UN is good and bad as the people of the world are.

and gently placed it atop Of the UN building they wouldn't have seen it. the interception of the cargo vassal followed a comprehensive and complicated intelligence operation involving Israel, the U.S and European countries. Supplying arms to Hizballah is prohibited under U.N. Security Council resolutions adopted during the summer 2006 war in Lebanon. The arms shipment had been under surveillance since the moment it left the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas ten days ago aboard an Iranian vessel, say security officials. They say it sailed 2,500 miles through the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, before docking in an Egyptian harbor. Then, on Tuesday afternoon, the 36 container carrying the weapons were loaded onto a German-owned ship that sailed on a route that would have taken it via Cyprus to the Syrian port of Latakia. From there, say the officials, the weapons would have been transferred to Hizballah's arsenal in Lebanon. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1934835,00.html?xid=rss-world#ixzz0VxxbOwWe

As is well known, George Bush was renowned for appointing competent people in his administration. Witness the aid to New Orleans during the hurricane. "Heck of a job, Brownie." Bolton negotiated 1701 to give Israel an out of Lebanon II. Israel, by the end of that conflict, had used up its supply of US made cluster bombs and its war budget and would have had to settle in for a decade or more occupation in the absence of an out. Costly in lives and treasure. 1701 gave Israel an out. But it was just another 'heck of a job.' Sometimes it pays to have competent people working in government. The problem of having competence in government is it makes it hard to argue that all government is incompetent and should be eliminated. And nobody knows what secret protocols exist between the Lebanese government and Hezbollah.

How Blind Can One Get On January 2009, a cargo ship had been held up in Cyprus, for smuggling ammunition from Iran via Syria to Hisboallah, violating RES 1747 On October 2009, the USA Navy found 8 containers full of ammunition on a German ship destined from Iran via Syria to Hisboallah, violating RES 1747 Hisboallh has reached and over passed the amount of munitions it had before the Lebanon war started, who is that possible if not by arms smuggling or the UN watchdog turning a blind eye to what is happening! How Blind Can One Get? I am sure that the ship Israel captured just yesterday with 100`s of tons of ammunition sent from Iran via Syria to Hisboallah, violating RES 1747, and all safety regulations, would be regarded by the UN as an invisible shipment of Arms! The UN and Ben have been exposed again!

Defend yourselves?? By attacking North Israel with a missile barrage then crying victim? Anyway Hezb has stated that they will not stop if they get Sheba so "defending" is just good old fashioned takiya from the safety of Dubai

too scared of what Hezballah and their militia will do to them if they get in the way.

If USA can send Israel weapons during war, when they don't actually need them, then we are allowed to receive weapons to defend ourselves. They are still Lebanese lands that should be liberated, i dont care if its 1mm, its our n we will take it back !!!

...yes things are transient now as they oftn are in Israeli politics, let's see if this latest Israeli government makes a full term... In any case, Hezbollah is part and parcel of the Lebanese government. They fought back Israel's ongoing aggression and Lebanon appreciates that, even if some are uneasy about that fact.

UN - see no evil hear no evil speak no evil (unless we are talking about Israel). Can you say ?corrupt hypocrites??

No evidence of arms smuggling? No doubt the munitions are brought in by Santa Claus.

Did the UN visit the Israeli port where the Iranian weapons are ?? It want change anything, but a lease, they will have to report the findings and repeat their stupid nu,nu,nu

the un is made up of majority states that are frankly totalitarian. the idea that such an institution, a quarter of whose members are islamic states, would be honest about weapons smuggling from one islamic state to another, with the purpose of terrorising israel, is absurd.

Does anyone other than the arab countries actually take the UN seriously? It really is a disgrace to mankind.

JB:"Yeah, and how long can you continue to say that WITHOUT concluding that this is because the Lebanese govt is "authorizing" Hezbollah to "smuggle" those weapons in?" If this is the case then all bets are off. The whole point of 1701 was to keep weapons out of Hezbollah hands in South Lebanon regardless of any verbal gymnastics you want to play at. A weapons free South Lebanon was the carrot waved in front of Israel's nose to stop fighting. The carrot has gone, so what's in it for Israel now? Why should she sit back and watch this nonsense continue?

The Lebanese gov still officially states it wishes to disarm/integrate Hezbollah into the national armed forces. As such it is not officially ?authorized by the Lebanese govt" If they wish to do so that is their right, but they have not so Hezbullah does not have the right under international law to import arms and measures by independent nations to prevent arms trafficking to this entity are perfectly legal.

Many of us have been around since the Second Lebanon War. We know which people cheered as Israel hit UN observation posts and gunned down UN refugee convoys which Israel had claimed it would not attack. We all know who cheered as Israel hit UN Schools, shelters, offices and warehouses during Cast Lead. And we all know who will claim Israel never targeted the targets they cheered Israel for attacking. Dishonesty is something only the honest can appreciate. The dishonest will just deny what they pursued, approved, and saluted. I am not ready to accept the UN report because I have been watching and while I cannot prove Hesbollah has not been resupplied, I can say I believe it has been. But I certainly can say that Israel has hampered, obstructed and refused to cooperate with the UN in preventing any resupply of Hizbollah. Indeed, Israel sees itself as an enemy of the UN and will do anything it can to harm it.

"In the report, Ban wrote that the Lebanese government had not informed the UN of a single incident of weapons smuggling to its territory" Off course it wont cause it backs up and recognizes hezbollah right to be armed!

The UN lacks evidence of smuggling in the same way they claimed not to have video recordings related to the Hezbollah kidnapping of Israeli soldiers. After some time and several denials, they miraculously came up with just such a recording and compelled themselves to blur out the faces of the kidnappers. What a deceitful organization.

Statement: "A key clause in UN Resolution 1701, which ended the Second Lebanon War, prohibits the delivery of weapons to any entity in Lebanon but the Lebanese government." Johnboy's response: "No, it doesn`t. It prohibits the delivery of weapons except those "authorized by the Lebanese govt". Wrong, Johnboy. Here's the actual language of the resolution: "in accordance with the provisions of resolution 1559 (2004) and resolution 1680 (2006)." And 1680? "calls for further efforts to disband and disarm all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias"

That's UN.

The UN Comedy troop is getting funnier and funnier every day. Whats next, asking Gazan and Hamas if Israel committed war crimes in Gaza? Oooops, sorry, they did that already. Hamas also said that they did not shoot and store weapons in civilian homes. Really.

The UN did not find any evidence of smuggling? Here`s a hint: check the Hezbanese - Syrian border. Memo to the UN: smuggling into a country occurs on a border with another country duhhhhhh. But UN admitted that they cant patrol that border. So they conclude that no smuggling takes place! UNBELIEVABLE! Here is another hint: Hezbo head ass freely admits that Hezbo quadrupled its weapons and rockets since 2006 war. So how did they do that, got Harry Potter to preform magic for them? Duhhhhhh And finally, the UN should read newspaper there is some odd news about ship that was caught yesterday carrying 300 tons of some cargo and let me tell you that it was not Barbie dolls.

The normal lies ,deciet,falsehhod and outright untruths by the head of the anti Israel United Nations. Again proof of his lies open for the world to witness.The special envoy,Michael williams his face covered with egg must resign his position and go to lie in another part of the world.He is a proven anti semite who has always spoken,written and falseified all reports against Israel Bye Bye Michael-Nobody believes you anymore. You have embarresed the UN to many times

caught and displayed in front of the entire world but the UN refuses to see it. Let us act now, unlike the way the world acted in 1938-39...!!!

Israel should use the seized weapons,the un says it has no evidence they exist,on hizballah...If the weapons do not exist,even if they destroy hizballah,Israel did nothing wrong,because it used weapons that do not exist!

On a day that an Iranian smuggling operation is busted, with hundreds of tonnes of weapons, the UN declares that there is no evidence of Arms smuggling to Lebanon.

No feedback on this article since it isn't entirely anti-Israel the way most of your articles are. How did the rape desiring editors of Haaretz let this one get past them? Were they busy servicing their Palestinian lovers?

"A key clause in UN Resolution 1701, which ended the Second Lebanon War, prohibits the delivery of weapons to any entity in Lebanon but the Lebanese government." No, it doesn't. It prohibits the delivery of weapons except those "authorized by the Lebanese govt". It most definitely does not prohibit delivery to "any entity in Lebanon but the Lebanese government" That is not a trivial distinction, because it allows the Lebanese Govt to "authorize" an entity other than itself to receive those weapons. "Ban wrote that the Lebanese government had not informed the UN of a single incident of weapons smuggling to its territory, whether by land, sea or air." Yeah, and how long can you continue to say that WITHOUT concluding that this is because the Lebanese govt is "authorizing" Hezbollah to "smuggle" those weapons in? At which point talk of "smuggling" becomes rather moot.......

Its too bad Israel lied has lied so blatantly about so many topics, we might be tempted to believe that they really didn't set this boat up. But, and tiredly so, seeing as they will lie about every facet of every topic - this is just comes across as Yet More Zionist Propaganda.

And, there were no rockets fired by hamas at Israel. I think there is a problem here: When it comes to Israel the Arabs can do no wrong. Iran, Syria, hezbollah and hamas lie and the UN will swear to it.