Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman yesterday accused North Korea of creating a world-threatening “axis of evil” with Iran and Syria by supplying them with weapons technology.
The firebrand politician also warned that Iran’s suspected quest for nuclear weapons could spark a Middle East nuclear arms race with potential consequences of the like “we have seen only in the horror movies in Hollywood.”
Lieberman relayed similar warnings to Japan’s Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Tuesday, accusing North Korea of supplying Syria with weapons of mass destruction.
“This axis of evil that includes North Korea, Syria and Iran is the biggest threat not only to Israel but to the entire world,” Lieberman said at a press conference in Tokyo.
He referred to the seizure in Bangkok in December of an arms shipment from North Korea believed to have been destined for Islamist groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
US intelligence said the plane was bound for an unnamed Middle Eastern country.
More than 35 tonnes of arms including rockets and rocket-propelled grenades were seized from a cargo plane after it made an emergency landing at a Bangkok airport. Thai authorities confirmed the plane came from North Korea.
In January, the Thai government sent a report to the UN Security Council stating that the weapons were headed for Iran, which is allied to Syria.
“With huge numbers of different weapons ... [it had the] intention of smuggling these weapons to Hamas and to Hezbollah,” Lieberman said at the press conference.
“This cooperation between North Korea and Syria ... [does not] improve the economic situation in their countries,” he said, speaking to reporters in English.
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said on Monday that Israel was in a proxy war with Iran due to its sponsorship of Lebanon’s Hezbollah guerrillas and the Palestinian Islamic movement Hamas.
Diplomats have said that interdiction of the weapons in Bangkok appears to have been directed against North Korea and intended to prevent it circumventing UN sanctions, rather than Iran. Although the Islamic Republic is subject to separate UN sanctions as a result of prevarications over its nuclear program, it is not forbidden from importing arms.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not