(CNSNews.com) – Israel this week seized what it called the biggest cache of smuggled weapons it has ever intercepted in the region. The seizure comes at a time of fresh concerns about Iranian and Syrian support for terrorism.
 
The Israeli Navy found “hundreds of tons” of rockets and other weapons on the Francop, a commercial ship flying an Antiguan flag, after commandos boarded it near Cyprus. The vessel was reportedly heading for Syria or Lebanon.
 
Israeli defense officials said Wednesday the arms were destined for Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shi’ite terrorist group, and that documents found onboard showed that they originated from Iran.
 
Commodore Ran Ben-Yehuda of the Israeli Navy, speaking at the Israeli port of Ashdod where the weapons were unloaded from the ship, said they had been found in dozens of shipping containers, hidden behind commercial goods.
 
“The weapons came from Iran and were meant for Hezbollah,” he said.
 
Any shipment of arms from Iran to Hezbollah would violate U.N. Security Council resolutions at both ends of the transaction: Iran is prohibited from exporting weapons, and two resolutions call for the disbanding and disarmament of Hezbollah along with other non-state armed militias in Lebanon.
 
Israel has for years accused Syria and Iran of financing and arming the Lebanese group. Iran helped to establish Hezbollah shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution in Tehran; Syria has long dominated its small neighbor while manipulating it militarily and politically through the use of Hezbollah and other allies.
 
Israel charges that the U.N., which has an observer force in southern Lebanon, is doing nothing to prevent Hezbollah from restocking its arsenals, following a month-long war in 2006 during which it fired some 4,000 rockets into Israel. (The weak U.S.-backed government in Beirut has also made no move to disarm Hezbollah.)
 
Just hours before the ship was intercepted, Israeli military intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin told lawmakers in Jerusalem that Hezbollah was again amassing weapons in southern Lebanon, obtained from Iran, via Syria.
 
Yadlin also said the two governments were arming Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and reported that Hamas has for the first time obtained an Iranian-made rocket capable of striking Tel Aviv if launched from Gaza.
 
The Israeli military said the Francop incident was indicative of “a well-known Iranian technique, taking advantage of cargo ships flying different flags in order to smuggle containers loaded with large amounts of highly volatile weaponry to terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah.”
 
Iran and Syria both denied that Israel allegations. At a press conference in Tehran, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said the ship was “not carrying Iranian-made weaponry for Syria or Lebanon,” but rather Syrian-made commercial goods headed for Iran.
 
His Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki, also dismissed the claims.
 
Although most Sunni Arab states are wary of Shi’ite, non-Arab Iran, Syria’s ruling family – members of the Shi’ite offshoot Allawite sect – has enjoyed close ties with Tehran since the Islamic revolution.
 
“Whoever still needed decisive proof that Iran continues to send weapons to terrorist organizations, received it today in a very clear and unequivocal way,” Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said in a statement on Wednesday evening.
 
“The time has come for the international community to apply real pressure on Iran to cease these criminal operations and give backing to Israel when it defends itself against the terrorists and their sponsors,” he said.
 
Netanyahu’s comments come at a time when Israel’s actions against terrorists are under critical scrutiny at the U.N.
 
In New York on Wednesday, the world body’s General Assembly opened a debate on a controversial U.N.-mandated report accusing Israel of war crimes during its offensive against Hamas in Gaza last winter.
 
The General Assembly is expected to pass a resolution endorsing the findings of the “Goldstone report” and calling on U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to take the report to the Security Council.
 
The report’s authors recommend that if Israel and Hamas do not investigate accusations of abuses arising from the war within the next three months, then the allegations should be referred to the International Criminal Court in The Hague for prosecution.
 
Israel rejected the report, warning that it poses a threat to counter-terrorism efforts by governments everywhere, and also risks damaging the Israeli-Palestinian “peace process.”
 
During Wednesday’s debate, Syrian envoy Bashar Ja’afari led condemnation of Israel on behalf of the Islamic bloc, saying Israel’s refusal to cooperate with the U.N. put the “credibility of the U.N. at stake” in the eyes of the Muslim world.