Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/272815
By Ruth Eglash The Washington Post JERUSALEM » The Israeli a rmy sa id Wednesday that naval commandos in- tercepted a civilian vessel carrying a concealed Ira- nian shipment of arms to Palestinian militant groups based in the Gaza Strip. The ship, the KLOS- C, was making its way up the Red Sea to Port Sudan when it was intercepted, Is - raeli officials said. Prime Minister Benja- min Netanyahu said the captured ship was "stocked with weapons destined for terrorist groups" and that "the entire operation . . . was organized by Iran." Denial from Iran Sepah News, the official news agency of Iran's Rev- olutionary Guard Corps, cited an informed but anon- ymous source within Iran's military, who denied the Israeli allegations, calling them "a baseless lie." In a dossier released to the news media, the Is - raeli army claimed that the shipment, which included Syrian-made M-302 sur- face-to-surface rockets, had been flown to Tehran from a weapons factory in Damascus and then trans - ported overland to the Ira- nian port of Bandar Abbas on the Persian Gulf. Af- ter a stop in Iraq, the ship- ment had been making its way to Sudan's main port, the army said. From there, it said, the shipment was likely destined to be moved by land through Sudan into Egypt and then to the Gaza Strip. Although the army could not say how the rockets would have reached the blockaded territory, it re - leased video footage and images of weapons loaded in the ship. All of Gaza's land crossings are cur - rently blocked by Egypt in the south and Israel in the east. 'Headed to Gaza' "We don't have the full plan yet, but we do know they were headed to Gaza," said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli army spokesman. He said Israeli mili - tary intelligence tracked the shipment for several months after it left Damas- cus and that the KLOS-C, which was flying a Panama- nian flag, was transporting rockets with a longer range than those Gaza currently possesses. The rockets could strike targets almost anywhere in Israel. "The urgency was to stop the rockets from reaching those who wish to harm us," Lerner said. The ship, with its cargo and 17-member crew of various nationali - ties, is now en route to the Israeli port of Eilat. It is expected to arrive in three days. Latest discovery It was not the first time that Israel claimed to have intercepted a weapons ship- ment from Iran. In 2011, Is- raeli navy commandos dis- covered 50 tons of con- cealed weaponry being transported from Syria to the Egyptian port city of Al- exandria. Two years ear- lier, the military uncovered 500 tons of Iranian-made weapons on a ship travel- ing to Latakia in Syria. In a statement, Netan- yahu, who is visiting the United States, accused Iran of concealing its true inten- tions and of "sending deadly weapons to terrorist orga- nizations." "At a time when it is talk- ing to the major powers, Iran smiles and says all sorts of nice things," Netan- yahu said. "The same Iran is sending deadly weapons to terrorist organizations and is doing so via a ram - ified network of secret op- erations in order to send rockets, missiles and other deadly weapons that will be used to harm innocent cit - izens." Netanyahu added: "This is the true Iran, and this state cannot possess nu - clear weapons. We will con- tinue to do whatever is nec- essary in order to defend Is- rael's citizens." On Tuesday, Netanyahu addressed hundreds of Jewish American leaders at the annual conference in Washington of the Amer - ican Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Dur- ing his address, he warned against trusting Iran on any level and on the issue of nuclear armament. MiddLE EASt Is ra el s ay s it stopped sh ip me nt o f Iranian arms Weapons said to be intended for various Palestinian militant groups By Lara Jakes The Associated Press PARiS » The United States and Western diplomats failed to bring Russian and Ukrainian foreign minis - ters together Wednesday for face-to-face talks on the con- frontation in Crimea, even as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry voiced optimism that an exit strategy was possi - ble. "I'd rather be where we are today than where we were yesterday," he said. The flurry of diplomatic activity came as NATO pun - ished Russia by suspend- ing military cooperation, and the European Union extended $15 billion in aid to Ukraine, matching the amount the country's fugi - tive president accepted from Moscow to turn his back on an EU trade accord. After an intense round of diplomacy with Russian For - eign Minister Sergey Lavrov and several European coun- terparts in Paris, Kerry said the meetings were "very constructive, without prom- ising something that is not defined yet, without raising hopes that are inappropriate to raise." "I want to be realistic. This is hard, tough stuff, and a very serious moment," Kerry said. "I personally feel that I have something con - crete to take back and talk to President Obama about," he added, without specifying what that was. Speaking separately af - ter what he called "a very long day" of discussions on Ukraine, Lavrov said the sides agreed to continue talks in coming days "about how we can help in efforts to normalize the situation and overcome the crisis." No direct meeting Still, there was no direct meeting between Lavrov and his Ukrainian counterpart, Andriy Deshchytsia, though the Ukrainian foreign minis - ter said Kerry asked him to delay his flight home in hopes of getting the two to sit down together. In an interview with The Associated Press, Desh - chytsia said he had hoped to brief Lavrov on a Ukrai- nian plan to offer Crimea more autonomy while still claiming it within the coun- try's borders. Any vote taken toward autonomy would require in- ternational observers to re- place armed groups in order to work, he said. "Our position is to use all the peaceful means, all the diplomatic ways to set - tle the issue without victims and tragedy — and with- out taking territory away," Deshchytsia said. "We don't want war with Russia." But Lavrov was not ready to meet. Leaving the French For - eign Ministry, he was asked by reporters if he had met with his Ukrainian coun- terpart. "Who is it?" Lavrov answered. "I didn't see any- body." Kerry repeats demand At a news conference at the U.S. ambassador's res- idence, Kerry played down the failure, saying there had been "zero expectation" of that, though U.S. officials said that is still the goal. Kerry also repeated the West's demand that Rus - sia pull its forces from the Crimean Peninsula, say- ing "Russia's violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity has ac- tually united the world in support of the Ukrainian people." On the ground in Ukraine, m e a n w h i l e , v o l a t i l i t y reigned. A special U.N. en - voy visiting Crimea came under threat by armed men who forced him to leave the region. And hundreds of demonstrators — many chanting "Russia! Russia!" — stormed a government building in eastern Ukraine, spreading concern that tur - moil could engulf other Rus- sian-dominated parts of Ukraine. Ukraine's prime minis- ter told the AP in his first interview since taking of- fice that he still feared Rus- sian President Vladimir Pu- tin might attempt more land grabs: "Mr. President," Ar- seniy Yatsenyuk said, "stop this mess." But most of the bargain- ing chips belonged to Rus- sia, whose troops are fanned out across Crimea and con- trol most of its strategic fa- cilities. Lavrov, speaking in Spain before meeting with Kerry, warned against Western support of what Moscow views as a coup in Ukraine, saying that could encourage government takeovers else - where. "We must understand that a bad example is infec- tious," he said. Sticking point While Russia expressed openness to international mediation, a major sticking point has been Moscow's re - fusal to recognize Ukraine's new leaders much less sit down at the table with them. NATO tried to apply pres - sure on Moscow in its own talks with Russia in Brus- sels. The alliance's secretary- general, Anders Fogh Ras- mussen, said ambassadors for the 28 member states decided after a meeting with their Russian counterpart to suspend plans for a joint mis - sion as well as all civilian and military meetings. Rasmussen said that be- cause of Russia's military action in the Crimean Pen- insula, "the entire range of NATO-Russia cooperation (is) under review." Rasmus- sen said NATO will continue to meet with Moscow at the political level but insisted that halting all other coop - eration "sends a very clear message to Russia." Cash equals leverage One key piece of lever- age that the West has over nearly bankrupt Ukraine: hard cash. The three months of protests that triggered Ukraine's crisis erupted when President Viktor Ya - nukovych accepted $15 bil- lion in aid from Putin in ex- change for dropping an eco- nomic partnership deal with the EU. On Wednesday, the EU matched the aid — which the Russians withdrew after Ya - nukovych's downfall — and the U.S. topped that up with an additional $1 billion. Meanwhile, Ukraine's for - mer prime minister — the heroine of Ukraine's 2004- 2005 Orange Revolution and Yanukovych's arch-enemy — called on the West to force Russia to withdraw troops from Crimea. Yulia Tymoshenko, who was released from prison two weeks ago, said any ne - gotiations about Ukraine's future should be conducted directly between the U.S., the EU and Russia — and insisted no compromises should be made to appease Moscow. "We believe that the ag - gressor must leave without any conditions," Tymosh- enko told the AP in an inter- view. UkRAinE Russia, West continue to work on diplomacy Kerry praises efforts 'without raising hopes that are inappropriate to raise' Sergei Chuzavkov — the aSSoCiated preSS pro-russia demonstrators hold a russian flag on the balcony of the regional administrative building aer storming it in donetsk, ukraine on Wednesday. By Somini Sengupta New York Times News Service UnitEd nAtiOnS » A se- nior U.N. diplomat who was sent to the Crimea region of southern Ukraine to assess the Russian military take - over there was threatened by men at gunpoint Wednes- day and aborted his visit a day after it had begun. The diplomat, Robert Serry, was confronted by a group of 10 to 15 gunmen as he left a meeting at a naval facility in Simferopol, the capital of the Crimea region, according to an account of the incident provided by Jan Eliasson, the U.N. dep - uty secretary-general. Eliasson, speaking to re- porters by telephone from Kiev, the national capi- tal, said that the gunmen confronted Serry and de- manded that he go straight to the city airport and leave Crimea. Eliasson said that when he refused, they sur - rounded his car and threat- ened him, but he was al- lowed to enter a cafe and call Eliasson. The identi- ties of the gunmen were not clear. "He is in good shape phys- ically," Eliasson said. "He is not kidnapped." A journalist for the Brit- ish network ITV, James Mates, who was traveling with Serry and witnessed the incident, reported that Serry was ending the trip. The United Nations later issued a statement saying "Robert Serry is taking a late flight out of Simfero - pol and will shortly return to Kiev to continue his mis- sion, which was cut short by today's incident." Serry, a former Dutch ambassador to Ukraine, serves as the U.N. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process. A fel - low diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, de- scribed him as "no rabble rouser." The thwarting of Serry's visit to Crimea may send a chilling message to other in - ternational observers who are on their way to Ukraine on behalf of the United Na- tions and the Organization for Security and Coopera- tion in Europe. Conti nu i n g i nti m id a- tion by pro-Russian forces in Crimea would make it difficult for those observ- ers to do their job, even if they are there specifically to address Moscow's often- stated concerns about po - tential abuses of the rights of ethnic Russians, who are a minority in Ukraine as a whole but a majority in Crimea and some other re - gions of Ukraine, especially in the east. The United Nations is sending the head of its hu - man rights office, Ivan Si- monovic, to lead a team that will visit both western and eastern Ukraine, includ- ing Crimea. Eliasson said he hoped Russia would wel- come the deployment of the monitors. 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