After seizure of Syrian-made missiles shipped by Iran to Gaza: ‘Iran’s aim is to help launch a two-front assault on Israel, from Hezbollah to Israel’s north and Hamas to its south’

By Yossi Lempkowicz

As he was addressing the thousands of AIPAC delegates in Washington on 4 March, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dedicated an important part of his speech not to the Israeli-Palestinian talks but to the Iranian threat.

Recalling a visit to the Golan Heights field hospital that is treating Syrian refugees, he said that while Israel is exporting humanitarian workers all over the world to aid in disasters, “The only thing Iran sends abroad are rockets, terrorists and missiles.”

He said he heard from a wounded Syrian in this field hospital: “All these years Assad lied to us, they told us Iran is our friend, Israel is our enemy. But Iran is killing us, and Israel, Israel is saving us.”

A few hours after he was speaking, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that the Israel Navy had intercepted an Iranian weapons shipment aboard a Panamean-flagged cargo vessel, the Klos-C, headed for terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip.

This shipment intercepted in the Red Sea, more than 1,000 miles from Israel, was carrying Syrian-made M-302 rockets with a range of up to 200 kilometres (125 miles) and would have significantly improved the capabilities of Gaza terrorists to put nearly all of Israel in their range. They also seized a payload of up to 170 kilogrammes (375 pounds). The missiles were hidden in shipping containers also carrying sacks of concrete.

“It’s a missile that’s significantly longer-range than they have now in Gaza, with a bigger warhead. If you draw a circle 200 kilometers long, it could hit Haifa in the north and of course Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in the country’s centre,’’ said Arieh Herzog, former director of the Israeli Ministry of Defense section responsible for the development and deployment of the country’s missile-defense system.

With a warhead that large, “the damage could be significant and Israel needs to do everything it can to stop it”, said Arieh Herzog, former director of the Israeli Ministry of Defence section responsible for the development and deployment of the country’s missile-defense system.

Herzog said he believes Iran’s aim is to help launch a two-front assault on Israel, from Hezbollah to Israel’s north and Hamas to its south.

The operation took months to plan, and involved constant intelligence gathering by the IDF and Israel’s security services, Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, Head of IDF Intelligence, told the press as he gave insight into Iran’s involvement in regional terror.

He said that the shipment without doubt originated in Iran. “We have good, solid, incriminating evidence that Iran planned, managed and executed this arms smuggling,” he said.

He noted that the Quds Force, a special unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, was the prime force behind the arms shipment.

The smuggling attempt was the latest in a long line of Iran’s attempts to ship weapons to terror groups in the region. “This is yet another example of the ongoing process, the ongoing effort of the Iranians to undermine the stability of the Middle East,” Kochavi said. Iran’s goal is ”to undermine regimes and to support all forms of terror organizations in Lebanon, in Syria, in Iraq, in Bahrain, in Yemen, in Libya and in the Gaza Strip, which was the destination of these rockets.”

UN Resolution 1747 forbids Iran from engaging in arms smuggling, he said. “Again and again, Iran violated the decision of the UN Security Council that prohibits it from selling and transferring weaponry.”

IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said the shipment originated in Syria and was flown to Iran and shipped to Iraq to “obscure their tracks.” IDF intelligence identified the transfer of the Syrian M-302 rockets from Damascus to Tehran through Damascus International Airport. Intelligence officials found the move odd, as arms are usually transferred from Iran to Syria, not vice versa.

The shipment was then moved to Iran’s Bandar Abbas port and loaded onto the “Klos-C.” The ship initially sailed to the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr, where it was loaded with containers carrying bags of cement to help conceal the weaponry and blur its Iranian origin.

When questioned about the curious origin in Syria, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said the purpose of the detour was to obfuscate “Iranian fingerprints” on the shipment.

Israel stopped the ship off the Sudanese-Eritrean border.

Lerner said the 17 crew members of the ship were probably unaware of the cargo. The vessel was being brought to the Israeli port of Eilat where the crew would be released and the weapons unloaded.

Maj. Gen. (res) Amos Yadlin, the former head of military intelligence, called the intelligence work, the operational capacity and the decision-making that went into the operation to intercept the Klos-C “fantastic,” noting on Army Radio that thousands of ships sail across the Red Sea daily and that it would be “embarrassing” had Israeli troops intercepted an innocent vessel in international waters.

Once in Gaza, the missiles, an IDF spokesperson said, “were meant for all terror organizations, including Hamas.” This seemed unusual considering the deep rift between Iran and Hamas and the ongoing fighting in Syria, pitting Hamas-like Sunni fighters against Hezbollah and other Iran-backed fighters.

However, whether or not Hamas ordered the missiles, it would have been nearly impossible to get them into Gaza without the terror group knowing.

“The Iranians knew well that this sort of shipment, this scope and this size missiles, would require the authorization of Hamas,” said Dr. Shaul Shay, a reserves colonel in military intelligence and a lecturer at the IDC Herzliya’s Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy.

Shay said that Hamas control of the few remaining tunnels linking Sinai and Gaza meant that Islamic Jihad, a group still close to Iran, would have had to give Hamas “at least a tithe.”

The rockets themselves, according to Yadlin, do not represent a “fundamental qualitative shift.” They likely have a 120-km range, he said, and carry a warhead in the 100 kilogram range. This is similar to the Iranian-made Fajr-5 rockets fired at the Gush Dan central Israel region during the November 2012 Operation ‘Pillar of Defense.’ Damaging, yes, but likely not the game-changer it has been made out to be.

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and others were hoping that the seizure of the ship, amid ongoing talks with Iran, would serve as a a different kind of game changer.

Yaalon, speaking of the US administration and the other five world powers immersed in negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, said in a press conference that the countries, which have not addressed Iran’s widespread export of terror, “could still come to their senses.”

The minister said the missiles intercepted by Israel would have placed millions of Israelis in the line of fire had it fallen into the hands of Gaza terror groups.

“This operation thwarted a significant threat to Israeli citizens,” he said.

Netanyahu took care to congratulate the Mossad which would indicate that its operatives and agents played a role in locating the cargo at an early stage, before it reached Tehran.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said the shipment shows how worse things will become if Iran is allowed to keep developing nuclear technology.

“At a time when it talks with the world powers, at a time when Iran is smiling and saying all sorts of pleasantries, that same Iran is sending lethal weapons to terror organizations and it is doing it with an elaborate network of covert global operations with the aim of streaming rockets, missiles and other lethal weapons to harm innocent civilians,” he said. “This is the real Iran and that country must not be able to have a nuclear weapon.”

President Shimon Peres called on Iran to 'stop bluffing'

“This operation exposes the true face of Iran which says one thing but does the opposite. They put on an innocent face and send the most dangerous missiles to a terror organization that kills innocents, in violation of international law,” he said in a statement. “Iran must make up its mind either to tell the truth and respect international law or admit that it is all camouflage and we cannot trust their policy or declaration. The same is true for Hamas.”

The successful operation of IDF to intercept the shipment shows once again the threat Iran is posing to Israel.

The Iranian regime, with whom the world powers are talking, is ideologically opposed to Israel’s existence and its leaders routinely call for its destruction. President Rouhani has described Israel as a “cancer.”

How does Iran pose a direct threat to Israeli security?

Iran actively opposes Israel. It positions itself as the regional leader of radical anti-Western and anti-Israel forces, supporting the Assad regime, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and armed Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip.

Iran arms, trains and supports armed groups that operate against Israel and Jewish targets.

Palestinian armed groups

Before the seizure of the Klos-C ship carrying advanced missiles with a range of 100-200km from Iran to Gaza, in March 2011 the Israeli Navy captured the Victoria, and in January 2002 the Karine-A, both carrying tonnes of weaponry from Iran to the Gaza Strip.

Iran has long backed Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian armed groups. Hundreds of rockets fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip were supplied by Iran. Iran-Hamas relations were strained when Hamas refused to support Assad in Syria, but the ties remain.

Hezbollah

Established in Lebanon by Iran in the 1980s, Hezbollah is committed to Iran’s agenda.

Iran supplies Hezbollah’s massive arsenal of short and medium range rockets, estimated at over 60,000 rockets, as well as more advanced weapons. Hezbollah fired 4000 rockets at Israel during the 2006 Second Lebanon War, killing 44 civilians and injuring more than 1400.

Hezbollah plays a major role in Lebanon’s coalition government. It uses its independent armed forces to intimidate internal opposition.

Iran and its allies attack Israeli and Jewish targets around the world. In February 2012, Iranian agents were believed responsible for attacks on Israeli diplomats in Georgia, Thailand and India. Iranian client Hezbollah was responsible for a bombing in Bulgaria in July 2012, killing five Israeli tourists and their driver. Iran is believed responsible for the 1992 attack on the Israeli Embassy in Argentina and on the Argentine Jewish communal building in 1994. The bombings killed 116.

How would nuclear weapons increase the threat Iran poses to Israel?

Iran already has missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads that can reach Israel.

If Iran acquired nuclear weapons, Israel would be in the shadow of a power which openly called for its destruction, and would have the theoretical capacity to carry it out. Analysts debate whether Iran would use a nuclear weapon against Israel, but any such possibility constitutes an unbearable threat. Much of Israel’s population and industry are concentrated in its coastal plane, and would be affected by a single strike.

There is the chance of nuclear crises born out of miscalculation. This risk is exacerbated by the hostility between Iran and Israel, the Israeli perception of an existential threat, and the lack of any direct communication channels.

An Iranian nuclear weapon would be likely to further embolden them in their violent actions against Israel and their support for armed extremists on Israel’s borders.

Iran could in the future provide nuclear weapons to proxies. This would be a way for Iran to deploy a nuclear device whilst denying involvement.

BICOM, the Britain Israel Communications and Resarch Centre, contributed to this report.

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