UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) –
A U.N. expert panel has concluded that a shipment of rockets and other
weapons that was seized by Israel came from Iran and represents a
violation of the U.N. arms embargo on Tehran, according to a
confidential report obtained by Reuters on Friday.
The finding comes just days
ahead of the next round of negotiations in Vienna between Iran and six
world powers aimed at securing a deal that would gradually lift
international sanctions on Tehran — including the arms embargo — in
exchange for curbs on the controversial Iranian nuclear program.
Despite
Israel’s public statements that the seized arms were destined for Gaza —
an allegation that Gaza’s governing Islamist militant group Hamas
dismissed as a fabrication — the experts said the weapons were being
sent to Sudan.
The experts do not speculate in
the report about why the arms were being sent to Sudan, a country which
Western diplomatic and intelligence sources have told Reuters has in the
past been a conduit for Iranian arms shipments to other locations in
Africa, as well as the Gaza Strip.
The experts said the Israeli U.N. mission wrote to the U.N. Iran
Sanctions Committee on March 13 about “the transfer of rockets, mortars
and related materiel from Iran to Sudan.”The 14-page report on the incident by the U.N. Security Council’s Panel of Experts on Iran makes no mention of the Gaza Strip as a possible destination for the arms, which were concealed in 20 containers on the Panamanian-flagged vessel Klos C. The weaponry was seized by Israeli authorities in March.
The U.N. experts reached their conclusion after investigating the case and inspecting the seized cargo and documentation related to the shipment, which traveled from the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas to the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr, and from there in the direction of Port Sudan.
The vessel was intercepted by the Israeli navy in the Red Sea before it reached Sudan.
“The Panel finds that the manner of concealment in this case is consistent with several other cases reported to the (Security Council’s Iran Sanctions) Committee and investigated by the Panel,” the experts said.
“The Panel concludes that the
shipment of arms and related materiel found aboard the Klos C is a
violation of Iran’s obligations under paragraph 5 of resolution 1747,”
they added, referring to the U.N. arms embargo on Tehran.
Despite Iranian denials, the
experts said official seals from Iranian customs authorities on
containers that held some of the arms “substantiates the Iranian origin
of those containers.” Further evidence on the Iranian origin came from
the Iranian bill of lading, cargo manifest and the container stowage
plan.
Iran’s U.N. mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
NO PROOF OF SYRIAN ORIGIN
The report includes details on
the arms, which were concealed in a shipment of cement: 40 M302 rockets
and fuses, including four different variations of the rockets; 181 120
mm mortar shells; roughly 400,000 pieces of 7.62 caliber ammunition.
The experts could not confirm the Israeli allegation that some of the weapons were made in Syria.
“According to Israeli officials,
the rockets were produced in Syria by the Syrian Scientific Studies and
Research Center (SSRC),” they said. “No markings were identified on the
rockets during the Panel’s inspection that would have allowed
confirmation of the Syrian origin of the rockets.”
“One expert notes that the
Syrian origin of the rockets cannot be independently established and
neither can the movement of the rockets from Syria to Iran,” the report
added.
It was not clear from the report
what, if any, role Iraq could have played in the smuggling of weaponry.
The 20 containers that held the illicit arms were part of the
100-container shipment loaded onto the Klos C at Bandar Abbas, Iran.
The 50 containers of cement
loaded onto the ship at Umm Qasr in Iraq did not contain weapons, the
report said, citing information the experts had received from Israeli
authorities.
The experts said the concealment
techniques were similar to other cases of alleged sanctions violations
by Iran they have investigated — in Nigeria, arms were shipped amid
crates of marble; in other cases reported by Israel arms were hidden in
containers with polyethylene pellets, lentils and cotton.
In another case of reported by Italy, Iran allegedly shipped dried explosives among bags of powdered milk, the report said.At the time that the arms were seized, Israel said the case showed Iran was not negotiating in good faith with the six powers – the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China.
“At the same time that it is
talking to world powers, at the same time that Iran is smiling and
saying all kinds of honeyed words, that same Iran is sending lethal
weaponry to terrorist organizations and it is doing so in a complex web
of covert, worldwide operations,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
said.
The circulation of the Panel of
Experts’ report to the Iran Sanctions Committee just ahead of a deadline
for Iran and the six powers to reach an agreement in the Vienna nuclear
talks clearly irritated Russia.
Earlier this week Russia’s U.N.
ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, complained that “any information not backed
up by concrete facts … could have a negative impact on the conduct of
negotiations of the group of six and Iran.”
But Russia was in the minority
in its complaints. Other Security Council members, including the chair
of the Iran sanctions committee, Australian Ambassador Gary Quinlan,
praised the investigative work of the Panel of Experts.
France’s deputy U.N. envoy
Alexis Lamek said the experts annual report submitted to the sanctions
committee last month was a “precise source of information on Iran’s
illicit programs and its methods of circumventing sanctions.”
The panel’s annual report said
that Tehran’s illicit procurement appeared to have slowed during its
negotiations with the six powers, though Iranians continued to attempt
to bypass sanctions on a regular basis.
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