Iran Denies Israeli Claims It Sent Syria-made Arms to Gaza
Day after Israel intercepts missile-carrying boat, Iranian state media says claims are 'baseless fabrications of the Zionist media; no immediate comment from Syria.
Iran on Thursday rejected Israeli allegations that Tehran supplied Syria-made rockets intended for Palestinian guerrillas in the Gaza Strip, a day after the Israel Navy intercepted an Iranian arms vessel carrying medium-range missiles in the Red Sea, about some 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) from the Israeli coast. The Navy said that the shipment was headed for the Gaza Strip via Sudan.
- Israel Seizes Gaza-bound Missile Ship
- U.S. Worked With Israel in Ship Seizure
- Between Iran and a Hard Place
- 'Raid Ended Red Sea Smuggling Route'
- IAF Jets Scrambled After Syrian Aircraft Spotted
- Ashton Begins Iran Visit
- Relying on Ourselves (And U.S. Aid)
- Iran Can Destroy Israel, Commander Says
"This allegation is not true and in principle the message or movement of a ship carrying weapons from Iran to Gaza is not true," Amir Abdollahian, Deputy Foreign Ministry for Arab and African Affairs said, according to official state news agency IRNA.
"The allegation is merely based on repetitious and baseless fabrications of the Zionist media," he added.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Iran's military arm which answers directly to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei rather than to the president, has also rejected the reports, according to IRNA.
There was no immediate comment from Syria,
Hamas Interior Ministry spokesperson said Wednesday that the seizure of the arms shipment by the IDF is an Israeli pretext to justify the Gaza blockade. He said Hamas knows that Gaza's maritime zone is under Israeli surveillance and that any ship that attempts to pass through would be stopped and that Gaza resistance forces are not so naïve as to send a large arms shipment via the sea.
The Palestinian leadership in Ramallah did not issue an official response to the takeover of the ship but Palestinian officials told Haaretz that the operation raises questions regarding the timing of the operation. "The ship has been sailing for weeks and it is seized exactly when Netanyahu is in Washington," the official said. "The entire operation and the reports raise many questions regarding the timing and whether the event was real or fabricated."
Comments
ICYMI

This Bedouin City Could Decide Who Is Israel's Next Prime Minister

A Women's Rights Lawyer Felt She Didn't Belong in Israel. So She Moved to Morocco

'It Was Real Shock to Move From a Little Muslim Village, to a Big Open World'
