Claudia Rosett: (h/t Instapundit for headline)
On Wednesday, in the Red Sea, Israeli commandos intercepted a freighter carrying a secret cargo of munitions loaded in Iran and hidden under bags of cement. The weaponry included dozens of Syrian-made M-302 rockets which Israeli authorities say were bound for terrorists in Gaza, and from there would have been capable of striking almost anywhere in Israel, including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
The next day, Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif ridiculed the munitions seizure, implying it was a public relations stunt tied to the annual meeting in Washington of a pro-Israel lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, at which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was a speaker.
Sending out a sarcastic note on Twitter, Zarif wrote” “An Iranian ship carrying arms for Gaza. Captured just in time for annual AIPAC anti Iran campaign. Amazing Coincidence! Or same failed lies.”
If Zarif is troubled by the timing, his real quarrel ought to be with his Iranian cohorts who dispatched the weapons. Instead, he’s trying to cover for them — turning the arms seizure into a game of they-said we-said. That’s a dark portent for the Iran nuclear talks, at which Zarif is serving as Iran’s chief negotiator, pledging Iran’s “good faith.”
But Zarif does have one thing right. The time lines surrounding this shipment are intriguing. Not least, they provide a rich context for the recent diplomatic activities of Zarif himself, including his smiling presence at last month’s round of nuclear talks in Vienna. From details of this latest Iranian munitions-smuggling saga, it can be gleaned that while Zarif was in Vienna, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, reading a statement to the press about their “very productive” nuclear talks, the freighter, secretly stuffed with weapons, was already enroute from Iran toward the Red Sea.
If Zarif knew anything about this, that’s damning. If he was clueless, that’s alarming. Which is it?
Here are some things we do know. Israeli authorities have released a statement, accompanied by video footage, in which they describe an elaborate smuggling scheme, meant to escape detection via a circuitous route — an approach in which Iran’s terror-sponsoring regime is well versed. The Israelis say that “several months ago” the Syrian-made rockets were flown from Damascus to Tehran, then transported to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. There, crates containing the rockets, concealed under bags of cement marked as made in Iran, were loaded along with other cargo into a Panama-flagged freighter named the Klos C. The Israelis say the crew did not know the ship was carrying munitions.
The Klos C then sailed further up the Gulf to take on more cargo at the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr, a move that Israel says was designed to “obscure the Iranian connection.” From Iraq, the freighter set out for Port Sudan, on the Red Sea, whence the munitions could be smuggled overland through Egypt to Palestinian-terrorist-controlled Gaza.
How often do Leftists and Muslims display their tin ears?
They lack any sense of timing.
As a result they invariably snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Had Iran not sent munitions to Gaza at this time they might have helped Obama overcome Abbas’ adamant refusal to recognize Israel’s right to continue to exist as part of the Obama/Kerry/Netanyau/Abbas ”peace talks.”
But this is a major monkey wrench in the works.