The saga of a ship suspected of carrying arms from Iran to Gaza grew more complicated on Saturday as Cypriot authorities searched the ship, then backed away from previous assertions that it was violating UN resolutions.
Authorities will now conduct a second search, the Cypriot foreign minister said.
Suspicions that the Cypriot-flagged container ship Monchegorsk was ferrying arms from Iran to the Palestinian organisation, Hamas, had been raised by the United States. The US military stopped the vessel in the Red Sea last week, but could not legally detain it or seize its cargo.
The ship continued on to Port Said, Egypt, then headed for Cyprus, where it arrived Thursday. It remains anchored off the island nation's southern port of Limassol under tight marine police security.
On Saturday, Cypriot Foreign Minister Markos Kyprianou said that a first inspection of the Monchegorsk was complete. He refused to give details on the ship's cargo, saying authorities were still trying to determine if it contravened UN resolutions.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
02/02/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11146 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#2
Far better to haul the arms out to the dock and spread them out for the world press to see .. assuming the press would bother to look.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/02/2009 9:40 Comments ||
Top||
#3
The arms are probably in the sea off the coast of Gaza, and there's nothing for the Cypriots to offload. I'm sure Israel is on high alert for "fishermen" from Gaza doing diving operations.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/02/2009 10:15 Comments ||
Top||
#4
or maybe somebody got some bad intell. It happens. Not a reason not to keep stopping Iranian ships.
#6
It was Debka so I was holding my salt shaker but so the story went that Iran was using modified containers with GPS to deliver the arms to Gaza. Debka's theory was that the containers would be dumped over board and would sink just below the surface then move with tide towards Gaza at which some point Paleo "fisherman" would use the GPS to locate and pickup the containers cargo.
Feasible but questionable also.
The US ships escorted the Iranian ship from Samalia through the Suez and into the Med so depending on how tight that escort was depends on if the ship was able to off load the evidence or not. Either way all Iran has to say is its for Syria and there is nothing the law driven west can do.
If Israel wishes to survive they better let their balls swing in this election and get rid of the pansies and exchange them for some men that still have sacks, Likud.
Defeats Lebanon & Gaza, on top of giving away the Gaza for nothing has got sink in to the Israeli gen pop. The sad part is they have the same disease US and the west in general have, Liberalism, so self inflicted suicide/flagellation is not out of the norm.
#8
Either way all Iran has to say is its for Syria and there is nothing the law driven west can do
Depends on what the manifest says. Also the Iranians can be required to produce the End User Certificate which, btw, has been a requirement internationally for decades. Nations don't normally screw around with maritime law; it's real easy to end up with a precedent that can be used against them later.
Yeah, the certificate can be 'bent' (it's basically a letter from the end-user saying the purchase was authorized by the purchasing government for sole use by a particular agency or government body).
But if the items aren't listed on the manifest, or if the EUC says 'Syria' and the munitions are listed for shipment to Venezuela, then there's an issue.
Security services are on high alert due to concrete intelligence that Hezbollah is in advanced stages of preparing an attack against Israelis abroad to avenge the killing of one of the group's top leaders, Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed in a car bomb in Damascus last February.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
02/02/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11149 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
#1
See also DEBKA + ISRAELI MILITARY FORUM, espec as per NASRALLAH warnings about disrupting the ISRAELI GENER ELECTIONS VIA THE RANDOM ISLAMIST/TERROR-LED LOCAL ANDOR INTERNATIONAL ASSASSINATION(S) OF ONE OR MORE HIGH-RANKING ISRAELI OFFICIALS???
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution calls for serious progress in investigations into Israel's criminal acts committed in the Gaza Strip.
"It is important to follow up on the issue of bringing leaders of the Zionist regime [of Israel] to trial because they committed war crimes [during their recent military campaign against the besieged Gaza]," Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said in a Sunday meeting with Hamas political leader, Khaled Mashaal, in Tehran.
Ayatollah Khamenei praised the victory of Gazans and the Islamic resistance against Israel in the 23-day onslaught on the Gaza Strip.
The Leader further said that the war on Gaza was not over yet, adding that the western-backed media have waged a psychological war on the costal strip in an attempt to distort the truth about Hamas and the Islamic resistance.
"Explicit expression of the Islamic resistance and the Palestinian people's adamant stance is the only way to confront enemies," Ayatollah Khamenei said.
The Leader called on the Palestinians to remain vigilant and be prepared for all possibilities - even the possibility of new attacks that could come at any time.
Ayatollah Khamenei urged the swift reconstruction of the war-torn Gaza and expressed Iran's readiness to help Palestinians and to contribute to the rebuilding efforts.
During the meeting Mashaal briefed the Leader on Israel's 23-day incursion into the Gaza Strip and hailed the Islamic Republic and the Iranian nation for their political and moral support for Palestinians.
On December 27, 2008 Israel launched an operation against the Gaza Strip killing more than 1,330 Palestinians and wounding almost 5,500 others.
Israel declared a unilateral truce on January 18, without achieving the objectives set by Tel Aviv. Hamas also announced an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, declaring victory over Israel.
Also on Sunday, a number of former captives - held by oppressive powers like Israel and the former Baath regime of Iraq - also met with the Leader of the Islamic Revolution.
Ayatollah Khamenei praised the former prisoners for enduring bitter and arduous condition in captivity, and added that "you made a big achievement through your resistance and patience."
The Leader also said that the US and Israel, which once thought they were the strongest powers in the world, are now weakened and their hegemony nears its end.
#2
Does the Ayatollah Khamenei have the morals of an alley cat? Or does the Ayatollah Khamenei not have the morals of an alley cat? The one thing he can count on is that he's not going to heaven.
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