Jerusalem, November 11: The Israeli military on Wednesday released a series of documents and photos it said proved Iran was behind a massive shipment of weapons Israel’s navy commandos intercepted last week.
Israel has said the cargo ship its troops seized off the coast of Cyprus was carrying 500 tons of Iranian-made weapons for the Lebanese Hezbollah militants. The ship had dozens of containers with Iranian markings on it.
On Wednesday, the military released what it said was a manifest stating that the ship originated in Isfahan, Iran. Another document showed contents that were allegedly handled by “Islamic Republic of Iran’s Shipping Lines.”
Israel also released what it said was a customs form stamped by the Iranian armed forces.
Both Iran and Hezbollah have denied the Israeli claims. Officials at Iran’s Foreign Ministry were not immediately available for comment Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the United States accused Iran of violating a U.N. arms embargo by secretly sending the weapons aboard the “Francop” — a merchant ship flying the flag of Antigua and destined for the Syrian port of Latakia.
Israel has showcased the haul as proof of its long-standing contention that Iran is supplying large quantities of arms to Hezbollah and Hamas militants in Gaza.
Israel says the confiscated arms cache — the largest it has ever seized — did not include any new types of weapons for Hezbollah. Rather, the arms would have given Hezbollah a month’s worth of firepower in time of war. Israel has urged the world to focus on the threat from the Lebanese militants’ chief backer — Iran.
Among the arms Israel says it found aboard the vessel were 9,000 mortar bombs, 3,000 Katyusha rockets, 3,000 gun shells, 20,000 grenades and over a half million rounds of small arms ammunition.
Israel also says that a close examination of the munitions themselves conclusively point to Iran as the source of the shipment.
The containers were stuffed with sacks of polyethylene pellets used to conceal the munitions, Israel said. According to the markings, the polyethylene was produced by Iran’s National Petrochemical Co. It included a telephone number that begins with 98 — which is Iran’s international dialing code.
Also discovered were thousands of rounds of mortar bombs and artillery rockets manufactured by the Iranian defense industry, such as 107 mm “haseb” artillery rockets that are identical to those used by Iranian-armed Iraqi insurgents.
Israel also said it found a large number of AZ111-A2 fuses, which, according to Jane’s Ammunition Handbook, is Iranian ordnance developed specifically to meet its military requirements.
—Agencies