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Are Relations between Syria and Iran Cooling Off?
(Ha'aretz) Zvi Bar'el - Syria appears to have been responsible for confiscating a large shipment of explosives that Iran was planning to send to Hizbullah via Italy. Last week veteran Lebanese correspondent Huda al-Husseini reported in Asharq Al-Awsat that a container holding seven tons of RDX explosives was confiscated from the deck of the cargo ship Finland in an Italian port on September 22 while on its way from Iran to Syria. The explosives, which had been sent by Iran's Revolutionary Guards, can be used as ammunition for M-302 and M-600 missiles. Employees of the Syrian Defense Ministry were reported to be the ones to inform on Iran to the Italian authorities about the illegal cargo. Feelings of suspicion and discomfort are apparently developing among Syria, Iran and Hizbullah, and the cargo in Italy is only one part of that trend. Just as Syria does not intervene publicly or ostentatiously in Iraqi affairs - an area considered to be under Iranian influence - so Damascus expects Tehran to refrain from intervening too crudely in Lebanese affairs, at least not in a manner that portrays Lebanon as an Iranian protectorate rather than a Syrian one. But Ahmadinejad's visit to Lebanon, the presence of Revolutionary Guards there, and the transfer of explosive materials from Iran to Syria in a way that puts Damascus under scrutiny raise questions about the quality of relations between the two countries.