Hezbollah denies link to arms ship

[November 05, 2009]  JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israeli defense officials said hundreds of tons of weapons seized from a commandeered ship could have given Lebanese guerrillas an extra month of firepower in a war with Israel, but the militants denied Thursday that the arms were bound for them.

Israeli naval commandos intercepted the ship Wednesday in waters off Cyprus and discovered hundreds of crates of rockets, missiles, mortars, anti-tank weapons and munitions. Israel claims the weapons came from Iran and were headed for Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon.

Israeli officials said the capture of the ship should help buttress the Jewish state as it fights war crimes allegations at the United Nations and seeks crippling global sanctions against Iran.

"When it comes to explaining the real situation in Israel, this gives us some more recognition that ... sometimes we must take protective measures to exercise our right to self defense," said lawmaker Tzahi Hanegbi, chairman of parliament's foreign affairs and defense committee.

But in the Muslim world, officials worried that Israel might use the ship to divert attention from urgent regional issues.

State-run Iran TV said in a commentary that the "Israeli propaganda" was aimed at diverting attention from allegations of Israeli war crimes during last winter's war in the Gaza Strip. A Syrian foreign ministry official expressed the same view.

Palestinians worried that Israel would pounce on an excuse to avoid peacemaking.

"Since the Israeli leadership and society are not ready for peace, they are using any pretext to shun peace obligations, and one is the issue of the Iranian shipment," said Ghassan Khatib, a spokesman for the West Bank-based Palestinian government.

Israel had not provided evidence the arms were meant for Hezbollah, which denies the weapons were for them.

"Hezbollah categorically denies it has any connection with the weapons which the Zionist enemy claims it seized aboard the Francop ship," Hezbollah said in a statement faxed to The Associated Press in Beirut.

The arms shipment shone a spotlight on dangerous tensions between Israel and the Islamic Republic. Israel considers Iran a strategic threat because of its nuclear program and long-range missile development, and says Tehran is lying when it denies it is building atomic arms.

Iran has never acknowledged giving weapons to Hezbollah, which fought a monthlong war with Israel in 2006. Proof of large-scale Iranian weapons shipments to its proxy forces on Israel's borders could reinforce Israeli demands for tough action -- possibly even a pre-emptive strike -- against Iran's nuclear facilities.

Israeli defense officials said the weapons haul consisted of arms already in Hezbollah's possession, and would have given the Lebanese guerrilla group the ability to fight a full month longer in the event of a clash with Israel on the scale of the 2006 war.

The defense officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the military has yet to formally comment on the potential value of the shipment's contents to militants.

The ship was released late Wednesday and set sail for Syria, the military said.

Government spokesman Mark Regev said Thursday that he hopes the capture of the weapons will be a "wake-up call to those few in the international community who up until now have still held illusions about the true character of the extremist, radical regime in Tehran."

The presence of Iranian proxies in the Mideast, combined with worries over Tehran's nuclear program and arsenal of long-range missiles, have made Iran the Jewish state's most formidable foe.

Neutralizing Iran's bomb-making ability remains Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's top priority -- and Israel has not ruled out a military strike against Tehran's nuclear facilities.

[Associated Press; By AMY TEIBEL]

AP writers Aron Heller and Michael Barajas in Jerusalem, Hussein Dakroub in Beirut and Albert Aji in Damascus contributed to this report.

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