Israel Suspected of Hijacking Russian Ship with Arms for Iran
Israel’s Mossad secret service may have been behind the alleged hijacking of a Russian ship that reportedly sailed from Algeria with modern weapons headed for Iran, according to military journalist Arieh O’Sullivan, writing in The Media Line.
The Russian and Israeli governments have dismissed reports in Russian newspapers that the freighter was carrying cruise missiles and S-300 antiaircraft rockets to the Islamic Republic. The weapons allegedly were on a ship carrying wood and sawdust.
“There is something fishy about this whole story, no doubt about it, but I can’t comment further on this,” Israel’s former Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh told The Media Line, a non-profit news organization. O’Sullivan is a former Israeli paratrooper was a widely respected military correspondent when he worked for the Jerusalem Post.
Eight men, posing as environmentalists, allegedly boarded the Russian freighter in the Baltic Sea, in Swedish waters, on July 24. The Russian navy re-captured the boat three weeks later off the West African coast.
Interfax news agency said that the eight men were charged with kidnapping and piracy, and Pravda reported that a “power that has relations with Ukraine” had intercepted the ship’s path to Iran.
The Russian ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) said the idea that the ship was carrying cruise missiles and other persons is “fantasy” and “ridiculous.” Israeli Foreign Minister spokesman Yigal Palmor issued a “no comment” over what he called a classical conspiracy theory.”
Retired Brigadier-General Shlomo Brom, a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies, told The Media Line, “It seems that it’s full of mystery since everything surrounding Russia is mysterious. And if it’s mysterious they dump it on Israel.”
Israel has taken several actions to prevent weapons from reaching Hamas and allegedly has been involved in several secret operations aimed at delaying Iran’s nuclear program.
Posts
