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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Cypriot ship saga gets more complex |
| 2009-02-02 |
| The saga of a ship suspected of carrying arms from Iran to Gaza grew more complicated on Saturday as Cypriot authorities searched the ship, then backed away from previous assertions that it was violating UN resolutions. Authorities will now conduct a second search, the Cypriot foreign minister said. Suspicions that the Cypriot-flagged container ship Monchegorsk was ferrying arms from Iran to the Palestinian organisation, Hamas, had been raised by the United States. The US military stopped the vessel in the Red Sea last week, but could not legally detain it or seize its cargo. The ship continued on to Port Said, Egypt, then headed for Cyprus, where it arrived Thursday. It remains anchored off the island nation's southern port of Limassol under tight marine police security. On Saturday, Cypriot Foreign Minister Markos Kyprianou said that a first inspection of the Monchegorsk was complete. He refused to give details on the ship's cargo, saying authorities were still trying to determine if it contravened UN resolutions. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #8 Either way all Iran has to say is its for Syria and there is nothing the law driven west can do Depends on what the manifest says. Also the Iranians can be required to produce the End User Certificate which, btw, has been a requirement internationally for decades. Nations don't normally screw around with maritime law; it's real easy to end up with a precedent that can be used against them later. Yeah, the certificate can be 'bent' (it's basically a letter from the end-user saying the purchase was authorized by the purchasing government for sole use by a particular agency or government body). But if the items aren't listed on the manifest, or if the EUC says 'Syria' and the munitions are listed for shipment to Venezuela, then there's an issue. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2009-02-02 17:23 |
| #7 1 Scuttling charge hidden in the hold, 1 remote. Problem solv-ed. |
| Posted by: mojo 2009-02-02 17:23 |
| #6 It was Debka so I was holding my salt shaker but so the story went that Iran was using modified containers with GPS to deliver the arms to Gaza. Debka's theory was that the containers would be dumped over board and would sink just below the surface then move with tide towards Gaza at which some point Paleo "fisherman" would use the GPS to locate and pickup the containers cargo. Feasible but questionable also. The US ships escorted the Iranian ship from Samalia through the Suez and into the Med so depending on how tight that escort was depends on if the ship was able to off load the evidence or not. Either way all Iran has to say is its for Syria and there is nothing the law driven west can do. If Israel wishes to survive they better let their balls swing in this election and get rid of the pansies and exchange them for some men that still have sacks, Likud. Defeats Lebanon & Gaza, on top of giving away the Gaza for nothing has got sink in to the Israeli gen pop. The sad part is they have the same disease US and the west in general have, Liberalism, so self inflicted suicide/flagellation is not out of the norm. |
| Posted by: C-Low 2009-02-02 13:34 |
| #5 Doubtful it's bad intel; the USN stopped the ship in the Gulf of Yemen. The cargo in question is either in Egypt, or over the side. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2009-02-02 13:07 |
| #4 or maybe somebody got some bad intell. It happens. Not a reason not to keep stopping Iranian ships. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2009-02-02 12:22 |
| #3 The arms are probably in the sea off the coast of Gaza, and there's nothing for the Cypriots to offload. I'm sure Israel is on high alert for "fishermen" from Gaza doing diving operations. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2009-02-02 10:15 |
| #2 Far better to haul the arms out to the dock and spread them out for the world press to see .. assuming the press would bother to look. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2009-02-02 09:40 |
| #1 It won't end until Islaeli Navy sinks it. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2009-02-02 03:45 |