Israel seizes weapons-smuggling ship off coast (Roundup)

Tel Aviv - Israeli naval commandoes Wednesday seized a commercial cargo ship smuggling weapons, the military said Wednesday. Press reports - not immediately confirmed by the military - said the arms apparently came from Iran en route to Lebanon's radical Shi'ite Hezbollah movement. The Antigua-flagged ship was stopped some 160 kilometres off the Israeli coast, military spokeswoman Lieutenant-Colonel Avital Leibowitz told the German Press Agency dpa. She said the weapons and ammunition were discovered hidden in commercial containers when the navy carried out a security check of the ship. The ship was redirected to the southern Israeli port city of Ashdod, where its was being searched while its crew was being interrogated by Israeli authorities. The Israeli military would not immediately confirm further details published in the local media, which claimed that both rockets and small arms were found on board. The reports said the weapons had made their way from Iran via Yemen and Sudan. The ship had been monitored by Israeli intelligence since it sailed from its port of departure, according to Israel Radio. The commandoes were operating off the coast of Israel but well outside its territorial waters. Israel has the right to 'act against terror' and those who supply it with weapons anywhere in the world, an Israeli government official told the radio. Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak briefed ministers on the capture and both he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated the Israeli security establishment. President Shimon Peres said not only Iran and Hezbollah, but probably also Syria was involved. 'The entire world is witness today to the great gap between what Syria and Iran are saying and their actions in practice,' he told reporters while visiting a joint Israeli-US Air Force missile defence exercise currently being conducted in Israel. 'Both Iran and Syria are constantly arming terrorist organizations, first and foremost Hezbollah and (the radical Islamist Palestinian)Hamas,' he charged, according to a transcript from his office. He said the weapons capture had both military and political importance 'of the first order.' Since the 2006 second Lebanon war, which lasted 33 days between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel has repeatedly complained that both Syria and Iran continue to supply Hezbollah with weapons, despite UN resolution 1701 which ended the war and imposed an arms embargo on the movement.