by David Harris
JERUSALEM, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Israeli navy captured a ship packed with arms on Wednesday, which it said was bound for Syria and subsequently to Hezbollah, the militant organization based in southern Lebanon.
Israel is said to have captured several ships containing weapons in recent years, at least four in 2009, and is constantly struggling to cut off the weapons' supply to its enemies. Its main claim is that these shipments originate in Iran and that Tehran is constantly looking for new routes to supply its proxies.
Earlier this week, Israel's head of military intelligence Amos Yadlin told lawmakers the Palestinian militant group Hamas had test fired a rocket that was most likely supplied by Iran.
Both Hamas and Hezbollah denied Israel's claims.
"Hezbollah staunchly denies any link to the weapons that the Zionist enemy has seized from the Francop ship... At the same time Hezbollah denounces Israel's piracy in international waters," said Hezbollah Thursday in a statement.
Syria also refuted the suggestion that it was involved with the ship's cargo.
Despite Wednesday's seizure of the Francop ship, analysts say that Israel is still facing the challenge of stopping weapons' shipments to its enemies.
ARMING HEZBOLLAH
The Francop ship was seized by Israeli navy vessels close to Cyprus. Journalists were invited to see the contents of some of its containers once the ship was towed to port in Israel.
Israel says it discovered some 3,000 rockets, among 300 tons of weaponry on board, which Israel said would be able to equip Hezbollah with 30 days of supplies for all-out fighting with Israel.
Iran and Syria have seemingly used a variety of methods to arm Hezbollah. Since the 2006 summer war between Hezbollah and Israel, the six-monthly reports of the UN Secretary-General on the situation in southern Lebanon have pointed to efforts to transport arms by land from Syria via its border with Lebanon.
Israel is of the opinion that Hezbollah is far better armed now than it was prior to the fighting.
¡¡¡¡INTEL AND TECHNOLOGY ARE KEY
Israel's attempt to seize arms' shipments is very much a game of cat and mouse, with the traders creating new routes and schemes, while Israel and its Western backers try to foil their plans.
Since January, an international flotilla in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, originally created to search for pirates operating off Somalia, has also been charged with searching for vessels carrying Iranian arms towards both Hezbollah and Hamas.
Meanwhile, shipments have been seized both on land and at sea, with international intelligence agencies suggesting the arms are being transported by sea as far as Sudan and then carried over land to Egyptian seaports on the Mediterranean. This route has seemingly been selected because it would be very difficult to pass arms through the tightly controlled Suez Canal which links the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea to the Mediterranean.
Israel needs to continue what it has done till now and that means both intelligence work and using the latest technologies to ascertain where arms are headed and how, said Barbara Opall-Rome, the Israel bureau chief for Defense News.
"It's the meshing, the intermingling of human and technology, more indigenous but with support obviously from allies and interested parties in the region," she said.
While the Francop was traced largely using human capabilities, Opall-Rome maintains Israel is already making good use of the latest technological advances.
Israel has deployed long-range synthetic aperture radar search sensors, which are fixed onto unmanned aircraft along with electro-optical and radar satellites, she said.
UPHILL WORK
Israel is trying to gather whatever information it can on what it sees as illegal Iranian activities as the international community and Iran try to negotiate an agreement over Tehran's nuclear program.
Israel argues that Wednesday's shipment seizure proves Iran is contravening UN resolutions. Israeli Foreign Ministry cited in a statement UN Security Council Resolution 1747:
"Iran shall not supply, sell or transfer directly or indirectly from its territory or by its nationals or using its flag vessels or aircraft any arms or related material, and all States shall prohibit the procurement of such items from Iran by their nationals, or using their flag vessels or aircraft, and whether or not originating in the territory of Iran."
Gerald Steinberg, a professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv, believes the international community in general and Europe in particular are failing to uphold this and other related obligations.
"If the Europeans and other countries that have pledged to implement the arms embargo against Hezbollah are going to do anything then the message is very clear. I don't know that Israel can do much more than that other than to continually emphasize the failure here," said Steinberg.
In the pro-Iranian media in the Middle East there were several opinion pieces on Thursday suggesting Israel is bandying about the story this week in order to take attention away from, or influence, the UN discussions of the Goldstone team's report into Israeli actions in and around Gaza during its military operation in January.
Hamas made similar claims a day earlier regarding Israel's claims about its testing of a rocket that is capable of hitting parts of Tel Aviv from the Gaza Strip.
Despite the denials of involvement from Hezbollah, Hamas and Syria, Israel will continue to search for weapons' shipments and even beef up its efforts, according to Steinberg.
If the weapons actually reach their intended targets then the situation "will become far more explosive," he warned.
While the seizure of vessels and vehicles carrying weapons only endangers the Israeli or international forces dealing with the incident, once the weapons arrive in Lebanon or Gaza, the chances of the casualties being civilian increase manifold.
This is part of Israel's key message this week as it travels the diplomatic circuit to get its message across about what it says is the danger that Iran poses.
