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Arms Ship Part of Iranian Campaign to Support Radical Forces
[Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs] Marina Rozhansky - IDF intelligence analyst Col. Shachar Levy told foreign diplomats on Nov. 5 that the Israeli interception of the ship with Iranian weapons was not just a case of " arms smuggling but [part of] a highly orchestrated strategic campaign of delivering arms to radical forces in the Middle East. This by itself is only one element of a multidimensional effort by Iran to build, to arm and re-arm, and to finance, to train, to supply operational guidance and doctrinal guidance, to give know-how and intelligence to radical forces in the area, while trying to galvanize what it calls the 'axis of resistance.'" "Arms are delivered by Iran by air, land and naval groups, using a vast range of mechanisms, all of which are clandestine." Another example "is the explosion of a train in Turkey in May 2007 which carried Iranian weapons to Hizbullah. It may have been the PKK that actually did it, but what was exposed was a very vast delivery of rockets, mortar shells, rocket batteries, bullets for sniper rifles." "In March 2008, you had an IRISL ship with 80 rockets, RPGs, 120 millimeter mortar shells, 122 millimeter systems....It was able to outmaneuver a NATO vessel and enter a Syrian port." "The Monchegorsk, in January this year...carried some 1,300 tons of arms to Syria and Hizbullah. It was stopped in Limassol for inspection, and the arms were taken off." "We currently identify more than 20 training camps within Iran....In some of these training centers...you have Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Syria and Hizbullah and even Iraqi terror groups training together."