A ship from Israel has been arrested in Germany on suspicion that it was en route to Iran with a shipment of military equipment: spare parts for armored troop carriers. The ship was stopped in Hamburg.
The cargo’s senders, a private Israeli company the name of which cannot as yet be disclosed, received a permit from the Ministry of defense to export the equipment to Thailand. The ministry says that the company apparently transgressed the terms of the export license.
Israel has no ties with Iran of any kind, diplomatic or security. Indeed, Iran has been described by chief-of-staff Moshe Yaalon as representing the most serious threat to Israel today.
The Ministry of Defense confirmed this evening that “a cargo sent by a private Israeli company to Germany has been seized by the German customs. The cargo included rubber cushions for armored personnel carrier caterpillar tracks, produced in Israel. The company obtained an export permit from the ministry as required by law. It declared that the final user of the cargo was Thailand. However, the German customs have said that the final destination of the ship and its cargo was Iran. The Ministry of Defense forbids the sale of war materiel and spare parts of any kind to Iran, and as soon as all the information is received from Germany, it will be passed on to the Israel Police for investigation.”
A few years ago, in another affair involving the sale of military equipment to Iran, Israeli businessman Nahum Manbar was sentenced to a term in prison. Under the regime of the Shah in Iran, Israel was a large exporter of arms, including missiles, to that country.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on August 28, 2002