Israel views arms shipment as card against Iran
Released on - Thursday,05 November , 2009 -13:36
Israel's capture of a weapons-laden ship allegedly sent from Iran and bound for Hezbollah will underscore its case against Tehran in the international community, observers said Thursday.
"Officials in Jerusalem had not dared even to dream of better timing for the capture of the vessel carrying so much arms and ammunition bound for Hezbollah," an editorial in Israel's Maariv newspaper said.
"For all practical purposes... the capture of the ship was, for Israel, like a gift from heaven."
The Israeli navy on Wednesday seized a ship carrying "hundreds of tonnes" of weapons, including rockets, grenades and ammunition, that it said was sent from Iran to the Lebanese Hezbollah militia in violation of UN resolutions.
A UN Security Council resolution which brought an end to the devastating 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel demanded the disarmament of all militias in Lebanon and imposed a ban on all arms exports to them.
Iran and Hezbollah have both denied any link to the ship.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that the arms seized were "further proof, if any is needed, that Iran is continuing to provide weapons to terrorist organisations that want to strike Israeli towns and villages and kill civilians."
"It is high time the international community put pressure on Iran to stop its criminal actions and back Israel when it defends itself," he added.
Israel views Iran as its main strategic threat because of Tehran's support for Hezbollah and Palestinian militants, its leader's frequent predictions of the demise of the Jewish state and its nuclear enrichment programme.
Israel, the region's sole if undeclared nuclear power, believes Iran's programme is aimed at developing nuclear weapons, charges denied by Tehran.
The seized arms may allow Israel to ramp up pressure on Iran to accept an international proposal for it to send stocks of low-enriched uranium abroad for conversion into nuclear fuel.
"Now the Iranians have been caught red-handed -- an Iranian company involved in the exporting of arms to Hezbollah as Western suspicions of Iran peak after Tehran's murky response to the compromise proposal on uranium enrichment," Haaretz said.
The capture also came on the same day the UN General Assembly began discussing a controversial report on the Gaza war by the respected former war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone that accused Israel and Palestinian militants of war crimes during the 22-day conflict that ended January 18.
The widely circulated footage of crates of rockets and ammunition on the deck of the ship could help Israel make the case that it was justified in launching the Gaza war, which was aimed at halting Palestinian rocket attacks.
Some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed in the 22-day conflict.