Israel describes weapons seizure

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Posted 8:56AM on Sunday, January 6, 2002

JERUSALEM - Israel offered a detailed account Sunday of its seizure of a shipload of Iranian-made arms traveling through the Red Sea, saying the evidence proves the weapons were intended for the Palestinian Authority. Israeli naval commandos stormed onto the vessel Karine A early Thursday, seizing 50 tons of weapons and arresting 13 people on board. Israel said the weapons were to have been delivered to the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip. ``This is an extremely grave incident which exposes the true face of the Palestinian Authority, an authority which is totally contaminated with terrorism,'' Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told a Cabinet meeting on Sunday morning. The Palestinian Authority denied any connection with the weapons and accused Israel of making accusations in an effort to undermine the current visit of U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni. On Sunday, an Israeli military official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the Karine A was purchased in Lebanon by Adel Mughrabi, who it said buys arms for the Palestinian Authority. The ship sailed to Sudan, where it picked up a cargo of ``innocent merchandise'' that it took to Yemen, the official said. In Yemen's port of Hudayda, the original crew was replaced by a crew headed by Omar Akawi, a colonel in the Palestinian naval police, the official said. Last month, on orders from Mughrabi, the vessel sailed to a point near the island of Qeys, off the coast of Iran, to a prearranged meeting with a ferry that had brought the weapons in about 80 large crates, the official said. The arms included Katyusha rockets, guided anti-tank missiles, mortars, anti-tank mines, machine guns, assault rifles, explosives and large quantities of ammunition. Inside the crates the weapons were packed in watertight plastic cylinders that were manufactured in Iran and can be set to float at whatever depth is desired, the official said. One crew member, a Palestinian diver, had been trained by the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon on how to operate the cylinders, the official said, adding that a Hezbollah instructor was on board the ferry and gave the diver a last-minute refresher course. The Karine A was to have passed through the Suez Canal and was to have transferred the arms to three smaller vessels in the Mediterranean, the Israeli official said. Those vessels were to have lowered the cylinders into the sea at a spot off the Gaza coast to be picked up by the Palestinian naval police, the official said. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said in Washington that the United States had no conclusive evidence that the arms were intended for the Palestinian Authority, and suggested that they may have been destined for Hezbollah or the Palestinian militant group Hamas. An Israeli official challenged the American statement Sunday. The United States has ``precise information on what was on that ship and for whom it was intended,'' said Gideon Meir, deputy director general of the foreign ministry. ``Therefore it will be very hard to refute the information that the ship was intended for the Palestinian Authority.'' Israel planned to display the munitions Sunday afternoon at a press conference in the Israeli Red Sea port of Eilat, with Sharon among those in attendance.