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Israel arms iran inquiry Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/08/29/israel.germany.ship/http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/08/29/israel.germany.ship/
Israeli arms to Iran inquiry
JERUSALEM --A private ship has been impounded in Germany suspected of carrying Israeli arms equipment from Israel to Iran.
The Israeli Defense Ministry says the cargo, which breaks an Israeli ban on military exports to Iran, included Israeli-made treads for armoured personnel carriers.
Israeli permission to export the items had been granted based on a declaration that its final destination was Thailand, but German officials said they were meant for Iran, the statement said.
Hamburg shipping authorities said a ship by the name of Zim Antwerp I, sailing for an Israeli shipping company under a Panamanian flag, was in the city's harbour at an inaccessible terminal. It was unclear if the ship was the one in question.
Eyewitnesses described the ship anchored at the harbour with a police car alongside.
The Israeli statement said: "The Defense Ministry forbids sale of military equipment, spare parts and weapons of any kind to Iran," adding that it was turning the matter over to Israel's police.
Customs officials said the two containers would be sent back to Israel as German law forbids the export of military equipment to Iran.
In Tehran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi denied that Iran was the destination, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran has no sort of relationship with the Zionist regime and such propaganda suggests that Israel considers the world's public to be naive," the news agency quoted Asefi as saying.
Israel TV reported that the shipment was sent by a firm called Piad, headed by Avichai Weinstein.
An Israeli ministry spokeswoman told Reuters that the Israeli company that sent the shipment may not have known the cargo was eventually to arrive in Iran.
In the past, Israeli arms merchants have been sentenced to prison terms for selling military equipment to Iran, but in the 1980s, the Israeli government was involved in a complicated deal involving the United States, Nicaragua and Iran that eventually became known as "Irangate."
According to Israel's daily, Ha'aretz, the ship's documents indicated that its cargo was to be transferred in Hamburg to a Malaysian ship that would carry it on to Thailand.
Ha'aretz reported that German authorities had apparently received information before the ship had docked that the cargo was to be transferred to an Iranian vessel bound for Iran.
As a result, German authorities closely inspected the papers of the Israeli and the Malaysian ships, according to the newspaper.
An Israeli security source told Ha'aretz that something in the Malaysian ship's documents confirmed the German authorities' suspicions, however it was not clear what it was.
The ship's export permit was approved by Israeli authorities without much investigation since its cargo did not include any weaponry, the security source told the paper.
Copyright 2002 CNN. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
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