BEIRUT: The dispute over Israel’s claimed haul of “hundreds of tons” of rockets it said was aboard a ship bound for Hizbullah showed no sign of abating over the weekend as the Antiguan-owned vessel docked in Beirut. Israel claims that it seized cargo from a ship after naval commandoes stormed the vessel in the Mediterranean in the early hours of Wednesday morning, a bounty which consisted of more than 3,000 rockets, according to reports from the Israeli media.
Israeli Army sources claimed to have obtained papers proving that the ship was destined for the port of Latakia in Syria and weapons aboard it were sent from Iran, eventually destined for Hizbullah.
Both Syrian and Iranian foreign ministers denied that such a cargo existed and accused Israel of attempting to hamper legitimate trade routes between the two nations.
For its part, Hizbullah was swift to brush aside Israeli claims, at the same time condemning what it termed “Israeli piracy in international waters.”
A Lebanese Army statement over the weekend confirmed that the ship in question was being held in Beirut while checks on its cargo and crew were being carried out.
“The Francop ship entered Lebanese territorial waters at noon [Friday] and, upon its arrival off Beirut Port, the navy in cooperation with UN naval forces searched the vessel,” the statement said.
“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 that it does not carry banned goods,” it added.
Security sources told The Daily Star that Lebanese Army military intelligence was conducting a thorough investigation of the ship and its crew, who remain in Lebanon.
The investigations confirmed that the vessel had docked at Damietta in Egypt and had been en route to Syria before being seized, the sources said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran of seeking to execute “war crimes” in transporting weapons he insisted were designed to injure large numbers of Israeli civilians.
But Speaker Nabih Berri suggested on Friday that Israeli claims regarding the seizure of weapons had been fabricated in order to deflect international attention away from the Goldstone report on Israeli war crimes during the Gaza war.
Berri added that Hizbullah had the right to obtain arms from “anywhere in the world,” but questioned why the Israelis had failed to detain the crew, if the ship was supposedly carrying the dangerous cargo.
Press reports citing Lebanese security sources also asked why the ship hadn’t been detained in Egypt, and called upon the Egyptian Foreign Ministry to issue a clarifying statement.
When questioned, the ship’s crew denied carrying weapons, explaining that had weapons been found on board, they would have been arrested under international law, press reports said. – The Daily Star
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