Israel said on Wednesday that commandos had intercepted a ship carrying “hundreds of tonnes” of arms from Iran to Hezbollah in a raid dozens of kilometers off its coast, but both Iran and Syria denied the cargo was headed to the Lebanese militia.
“We found dozens of containers, with hundreds of tonnes of arms bound for Hezbollah from Iran,” Israeli deputy naval commander Rani Ben Yehuda told reporters.
The shipment was among the largest ever seized by Israel, dwarfing the 50 tonnes of weapons found aboard the Karine A seized in 2002 on its way to Gaza, which dealt a major blow to relations between the Palestinians and Washington.
At the Mediterranean port of Ashdod, soldiers pulled hundreds of olive-green ammunition crates from shipping containers, many of them concealed by sacks of cement.
They were then divided into huge stacks of rockets of various sizes, mortar rounds, hand grenades and ammunition for AK-47 rifles. Many of the weapons crates had inscriptions in Spanish, Chinese and English.
The military had earlier said it had seized the 137m Antigua-flagged vessel Francop before dawn around 100 nautical miles (185km) off the Israeli coast.
Ben Yehuda said the captain of the ship was unaware of the contents of his cargo and had agreed to allow Israeli forces to board and inspect his ship.
He said the cargo manifest for the seized crates indicated they were headed from Iran to Syria, but Israel offered no direct proof to implicate Iran or Hezbollah. The Lebanese group declined to comment on the incident.
Iran and Syria rejected Israel’s accusations about the ship’s destination and direction of passage.
SOFT TENNIS: Yu Kai-wen and Huang Shih-yuan narrowly defeated their Japanese rivals to capture Taiwan’s first gold at the Asian Games in Nagoya Yu Kai-wen (余凱文) and Huang Shih-yuan (黃詩媛) won Taiwan’s first gold of this year’s Asian Games, defeating a Japanese duo in a nail-biter in the soft tennis mixed doubles final in Nagoya, Japan, while Johnny Sun (孫家閎) won silver in wushu and Shih Cheng-chung (石政中) won bronze in men’s kumite. Yu and Huang narrowly defeated Japan’s Toshiki Uematsu and Rena Temma 5-4 (2-4, 5-3, 4-2, 1-4, 1-4, 4-0, 1-4, 4-1, 7-5) to give Taiwan its first gold in soft tennis mixed doubles at an Asian Games since 2018. Sun secured Taiwan’s first wushu medal at this year’s game, with a combined score
UNITY: Lai thanked the nations who spoke up for Taiwan, saying that democracies must stand together to face global authoritarian expansion Taiwan yesterday thanked eight European and Indo-Pacific countries for opposing unilateral changes to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait in a joint statement earlier this week, as well as three of Taiwan’s allies for speaking up for the nation’s participation in the UN at the body’s General Assembly in New York. Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) welcomed the support and expressed his appreciation for the countries’ stance, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. Foreign ministers and senior representatives of Australia, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Poland, South Korea and the UK issued a statement on Tuesday
PLEA: How the UN addresses Taiwan’s security issue would be a test of its strength and relevance, Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine told the UN General Assembly Only Taiwan’s elected government can represent the people of Taiwan, Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine said on Friday at the UN General Assembly, calling for the nation’s inclusion in the UN. Taiwan and its 23 million people are a reality, and only its democratically elected government can represent it, Heine said when addressing the 81st session of the UN General Assembly General Debate. Appropriate ways must be found for Taiwan’s substantive participation in UN meetings if the UN is to be truly inclusive and effective in years to come, she said. UN member states would experience pressure to accept a
AT-RISK GROUPS: Of the accumulated 1,586 severe cases and 304 related deaths in this flu season, 65.8% were older people and 83.2% had chronic diseases, an official said The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said that 165 severe flu cases and 30 flu-related deaths were reported last week, the highest weekly numbers in this flu season, and that cases might continue to increase, urging people to take precautions. Medical visits for flu-like illnesses increased by 1.4 percent to 141,374 last week, with 11.8 percent being emergency visits, showing that the seasonal flu is still in its epidemic period, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) said. From Tuesday last week to Monday, 165 severe flu cases and 30 flu-related deaths were confirmed, the highest weekly numbers
RSS