Iran and Hamas are scrambling to minimize the damage from Israel’s Wednesday interdiction of the Klos-C – a Panamanian-flagged Iranian arms ship carrying advanced missiles bound for the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip – even as new details emerged throughout Thursday about intelligence operations that preceded the vessel’s capture. The intercepted cargo included M-302 missiles with ranges of 150 miles, the possession of which would have enabled any Palestinian terror group to blanket Israel with barrages.
Hamas on Wednesday belittled the interception as a “silly joke,” while Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif described Israeli claims regarding the operation as “the repetitive and unfounded lies of the Zionist media.”
“An Iranian ship carrying arms for Gaza. Captured just in time for annual (pro-Israel lobby) AIPAC anti Iran campaign. Amazing Coincidence! Or same failed lies,” Zarif wrote on Twitter.
“The claim of sending a ship carrying Iranian weapons to Gaza is not true,” Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian was quoted as saying by official IRNA news agency. “This claim is merely based on the repetitive and unfounded lies of the Zionist media” aimed at derailing negotiations between world powers and Iran over its contested nuclear programme, he said.
Iranian media said the allegation of the “imaginary ship” was a mutually hatched plot by the United States and Israel to put pressure on Tehran and its allies. “It paves the way for intensifying pressure and Congress ratifying new sanctions against Iran as well as intensifying political and military measures against Syria,” analyst Reza Seraj told Fars news agency.
The Israelis extensively documented the raid with photos and videos capturing among other things that naval operation that seized the vessel, and the denials are being read against the backdrop of potentially significant consequences that emerge from the capture.
Veteran Israeli journalist Dan Margalit was unsparing on Thursday, noting that “the intercepted delivery shows that Tehran is engaging in illicit activity behind Egypt’s back, forging new ties with Hamas in the Gaza Strip” and predicting that “eventually people will realize that for the ayatollah regime, lying is just part of its daily life, part of a routine.”
Tehran said it had nothing to do with it, but the Israeli intelligence, which has won praise all over, would be well-served if it provided a smoking gun proving that the ayatollahs have lied, again. This is just part of the game.
[Photo: Shaily Azulay / YouTube]