Israel views arms shipment as card against Iran

• Source: Global Times
• [03:01 November 06 2009]
• Comments

Israel's capture of a weapons-laden ship allegedly traveling from Iran and into the hands of Hezbollah will underscore its case against Iran in the international community, AFP 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."

Al Jazeera also pointed out on its website, "At the very least, the timing of this announcement was convenient. If one were cynical, one could even suggest that actually the announcement was timed to, if anything, distract some of the attention of the media in Israel from the Goldstone report."

The announcement of the capture came hours before the UN General Assembly began discussing a controversial report on the Gaza war by former war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone, that accused Israel and Palestinian militants of war crimes during a 22-day conflict that ended January 18.

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, AFP reported.

Israel announced Wednesday that it had intercepted a ship carrying "hundreds of tons" of arms from Iran to Hezbollah forces in Lebanon but had not provided evidence to support the arms were meant for Hezbollah militants. Both Iran and Hezbollah have denied any link to the ship.

"Hezbollah staunchly denies any link to the weapons that the Zionist enemy has seized from the ship," Lebanon's Hezbollah, which fought a devastating war with Israel in 2006, said in a brief statement.

Agencies