BEIRUT: Hizbullah flatly denied on Thursday Israel’s claim that a cargo ship it seized in the Mediterranean was carrying weapons destined for Lebanon, even as officials in Tel Aviv hurled fresh allegations of arms smuggling. “Hizbullah categorically denies any link to the weapons that the Zionist enemy claims it removed from the vessel Francop,” the group said in a statement on Thursday. “At the same time it condemns Israeli piracy in international waters.”
Israeli naval commandos stormed a ship it said was carrying hundreds of tons of weapons just before dawn on Wednesday in waters close to Cyprus. Israeli media reports on Thursday suggested that the haul consisted of more than 3,000 rockets.
Military officials claimed to have obtained a document proving that the ship was en route from Iran, had docked in Beirut and was due to travel on to Latakia in Syria after receiving its cargo in Egypt. However, as of Thursday evening, no concrete proof had been provided by Israel.
Israeli media reported that the Antiguan-owned ship, Francop, left the port of Ashdod in the early hours of Thursday morning to continue its initial route once all its cargo had been detained by security officials. Its 11 crew were allowed to leave with the vessel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran on Thursday of seeking to execute a “war crime” in supporting Hizbullah’s military designs in south Lebanon.
“This is a war crime that the General Assembly meeting today should investigate and discuss,” Netanyahu told reporters in Tel Aviv. “It is a war crime that the UN Security Council should have a special meeting over. It explicitly violates Security Council decisions.”
“It is a war crime that we know the Iranian regime intended for Hizbullah to carry out after they already fired thousands of rockets at our communities. This is what the international community should focus on especially today,” he added.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and his Syrian counterpart Walid al-Moallem were quick to deny any involvement from their respective countries.
Moallem accused Israel of obstructing trade movements between Iran and Syria.
“This ship does not carry Iranian weapons to Syria and does not contain military material to manufacture weapons in Syria,” Moallem said in a joint press conference with Mottaki on Wednesday.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman insisted on Thursday that his country’s claims regarding the proposed destination of the seized cargo were legitimate.
“The crew’s questioning, the documents and our intelligence prove above and beyond all doubt that the ship contained weapons destined for Hizbullah,” Lieberman was quoted as saying in Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharanot.
“They changed their route, moved from one ship to another; there is more than irrefutable evidence that it was destined for Hizbullah,” he added.
Lieberman echoed Israeli military intelligence chief Moshe Yaalon’s comments earlier in the week which alleged that the bulk of Hizbullah’s arsenal was being channeled through Syria.
“It is clear that the Syrians are capable of almost completely preventing arms smuggling to south Lebanon, but each and every day they do the exact opposite. That is why I believe there is no room for illusions here.”
He also referenced the rocket attacks between Israeli military positions and the southern Lebanese village of Houla of 27 October.
“We saw the Katuysha that was fired at [Israel]. We saw the test of the rocket that is meant to hit civilian population in central Israel,” Lieberman said.
Israel has been criticized by UN officials for its excessive response to rocket attacks across the Blue Line.
It has long held that Iran and Syria transport weapons into south Lebanon to increase Hizbullah’s military capabilities.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s report on the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1701, released to journalists this week, said that it took such accusations seriously but lacked the capacity to verify them.
Hizbullah, for its part, savaged the report on Thursday, claiming it overlooked many Israeli violations of international law while exaggerating incidents of Security Council Resolution 1701 violations occurring within Lebanon.
Ban’s evaluation “was unfair regarding Lebanon and its resistance,” the group said in a statement issued Thursday.
“What’s a more dangerous violation, the continuation [of Israeli airspace violations], spying activities, launching rockets on south Lebanon, [Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny] Ayalon’s statement that Israel will continue its spying activities in Lebanon, or a limited number of incidents that do not match repeated violations?” the statement asked.
Resolution 1701 was drawn up to end Israel’s war on Lebanon in the summer of 2006 and stipulates that Lebanese “internationally recognized” borders not be breached.
Ban said he had repeatedly asked Israel to cease its aerial reconnaissance missions over Lebanese airspace, yet the exercises persist on a near-daily basis.
The statement continued: “[The report] should have highlighted the Israeli violations that cause concern and instability in the region since Resolution 1701 does not only concern Lebanon – which expresses commitment to its full implementation – but also Israel to a further extent.
“Why disregard and encourage Israel to continue its aggression?” the statemnet added.
Ban’s report was the 11th evaluation of the implementation of Resolution 1701 and called for the eradication of non-state-controlled weapons within Lebanon. – With agencies
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