UN Panel Finds Klos C. Weapons Originated from Iran

The UN Security Council’s Iran Sanctions Committee said in a confidential report obtained by Reuters on Friday that a shipment of rockets and other weapons that were concealed in containers on Klos C. vessel, which were seized by Israeli Navy in tin he Red Sea March, came from Iran. The finding puts the country in direct violation of the U.N. embargo on arms exports by Iran.

The UN panel of experts, part of the Security Council's Iran Sanctions Committee, which was established by the Security Council to monitor member states’ compliance with sanctions, reached their conclusions   after investigating the case and inspecting the seized cargo and documentation related to the shipment, which traveled from the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas to the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr, and from there in the direction of Port Sudan.

“The Panel finds that the manner of concealment in this case is consistent with several other cases reported to the (Security Council's Iran Sanctions) Committee and investigated by the Panel,” the panel of experts said.

“The Panel concludes that the shipment of arms and related materiel found aboard the Klos C is a violation of Iran's obligations under paragraph 5 of resolution 1747.” (Reuters, 27 June)

The report includes details on the arms, which were concealed in a shipment of cement: 40 M302 rockets and fuses, including four different variations of the rockets; 181 120 mm mortar shells; roughly 400,000 pieces of 7.62 caliber ammunition.

File photo: Klos C. being intercepted by Israeli marines, march 2014. (JNS.org)

Israel presents KLOS-C arms cache

INS Eilat (501) Sa'ar 5 class corvett with IDF interdicted arms from KLOS-C

According to Reuters:

Last week the Israeli navy captured a ship in the Red Sea carrying arms that the military said included forty M-302 surface-to-surface rockets manufactured in Syria and capable of striking most of Israel from the Gaza Strip.

Along with the missiles, some 180 mortar shells and 400,000 rifle rounds were laid out in neat piles on a pier in the southern port of Eilat. A navy missile boat that took part in the raid was docked behind the display.

At the IDF presentation, Prime Minister Netanyahu took the podium to exhort that Iran is "fooling the world" with its nuclear negotiations. However, that Iran is pro-Palestine is no secret.

Some Middle East observers speculate that if the military balance between the Israelis and Palestinians were not so overwhelmingly lopsided in Israel's favor, the Israelis might well negotiate peace in a more honest and forthright manner. Netanyahu's display of the mighty INS Eilat as a backdrop to what can be described in tactical terms as a quite limited logistical supply of cheaply produced 302 mm unguided artillery rockets, 120 mm mortar bombs and 7x62 mm small arms ammunition, well illustrates this enormous disparity.

However, the M-302 rockets do possess a modicum of potential deterrence last seen during Israels's Operation Pillar of Defense, where Palestine's surprise employment of Fajr-5 type rocket artillery may have indirectly contributed towards the IDF not launching a ground force incursion similar to that of Operation Cast Lead.

Photo: IDF on Flickr

Klos C Arrives in Eilat

Klos C, the cargo ship intercepted by Israel in the Red Sea on Wednesday, reached the Israeli port of Eilat today under escort of Israeli warships. IDF announced today, after its second inspection of the vessel, that the ship was carrying 40 160-km-range rockets.

Klos C was berthed in the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas and Iraqi port of Umm Qasr before sailing toward Port Sudan. Israel says that Iran’s Quds Force was behind the shipment of Syrian-made M-302 rockets to Sudan, for eventual transfer to Gaza. Iran denies any connections to the ship or its cargo.

Photo credit: Klos C cargo ship being escorted by Israeli warships to port of Eilat, the Red Sea port of Israel. 

Iran FM Denies Weapons Shipment – ‘Failed Lies’

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif dismissed Israeli allegations that Iran was behind a shipment of Syrian-made rockets destined for Gaza that were seized by Israeli commandos on Wednesday. Zarif called the allegations “failed lies.” (IRNA, 6 March)

Meanwhile, the Israeli military spokesman Brig. Gen. Moti Almoz insisted that there are “clear and unequivocal information” that the weapons came from Iran. (AP, 6 March)

The ship, KLOS C, is being escorted to the Israeli port of Eilat, and is expected to arrive on Saturday. The Israelis have said that their preliminary inspection of the ship has turned out that it was transporting dozens of M-302 rockets, which have a range of 150km to 200km (93-124 miles).

The Israelis say that they have followed the weapons shipment for several months as they were flown from Damascus to Tehran and then taken to a port in Bandar Abbas for shipment to Sudan, and from there to Gaza.

Meanwhile, the Sudanese foreign ministry today denied any knowledge that the ship heading to Port Sudan had contained weapons.

Photo credit: This photo released by the Israel Defense Forces shows a missile on board KLOS C that was intercepted on Wednesday, 5 March 2014. (IDF/AP)

U.S., Israel Shared Intelligence on Weapons Shipment

Israel and the U.S. coordinated intelligence and military activities leading up to Israel’s seizure of KLOS C laden with a cache of advanced heavy rockets allegedly headed to Gaza from Iran, the U.S. State Department said Wednesday.

“Soon after becoming aware of the imminent movement of the suspected vessel, the White House directed the Department of Defense to monitor the vessel and to develop concepts of operation for a range of options in order to be prepared to take unilateral steps if necessary,” State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said in a press briefing Wednesday.

“This is part of, of course, a robust effort on the part of the Administration. We were closely coordinated, our intelligence and military activities, with the – with our Israeli counterparts, who ultimately chose to take the lead with this case,” Psaki added. (The Times of Israel/AP, 5 March)

Israel captured the ship near Port Sudan early today, with Israeli officials saying the naval operation followed heavy intelligence work tracking the missile shipment from Damascus to Iran and from there to Iraq before being captured en route to Gaza. (The Times of Israel/AP, 5 March)

Turkey was notified of the operation right after it took place, but before Israeli commandos had returned to their base, because most of the crew aboard the ship carried Turkish citizenship, according to reports in Israeli media. Panama was also informed right afterward because the ship was flying its flag. (The Times of Israel, 5 March)

Iran and Hamas have denied the report.

This is what the media has reported so far:

• Iran’s Quds Force wanted to supply the Palestinians with heavy rockets, capable of hitting any point in Israel, a “game changer,” as IDF puts it.
• Quds Force does not want to ship Iranian missiles to Gaza. The action would have violated UN Security Council resolutions on the ban of exports of weapons by Iran, and would have run counter to the country’s new foreign policy of lessening tensions in the region. Iran did not also want to re-export other countries’ missiles for the same reasons.
• The Quds Force puts  an elaborate plan in action. It ships Syrian missiles from Damascus by cargo planes to Tehran, passing Iraqi airspace. The missiles are then shipped to the Persian Gulf port of Bandar Abbas. They are reportedly loaded onto cargo ship KLOS C, which was in the port to load Iranian cement destined for Sudan. The Israelis and Americans say they were monitoring the actions from the very beginning.
• The ship, reportedly carrying the boxes of missiles hidden under sacks of cement, leaves Bandar Abbas and stops at the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr, loading more cargo in what IDF describes as a move by Iranians to obscure their track. The ship is intercepted early this morning by a unit of Israeli Special Forces, the elite naval commandos known as Shayetet 13.

It is easy to prove or refute the facts about KLOS C movements, as maritime monitoring organizations register and update all cargo ships’ whereabouts on continual basis; records that are public. So we should be able to say for sure if the ship was in Bandar Abbas, for how long, and where did it go after that, the Iraqi port? If the existence of hidden rockets onboard the ship were true, it would make it unlikely that they were loaded onto the ship by the Iraqis.

And if all this reads like a spy screenplay, it’s because it mimics one!

Photo credit: Screen capture of the interception of KLOS C by Israeli Special Forces; 5 March 2014 (IDF/The Times of Israel)

Image credit: The route of KLOS C captured by the IDF, March 5 (IDF/The Times of Israel)

Israel Intercepts Ship Carrying Rockets – Reportedly Loaded in Bandar Abbas

Israeli naval commandos today raided a cargo ship that had reportedly left the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas destined for Sudan and seized dozens of advanced heavy rockets hidden in boxes covered by hundreds of sacks of cement. The Associated Press quoted an Israeli Defense Force spokesman that the rockets were to be ultimately delivered to Palestinian militant groups in Gaza.

The rockets were M-302C, M-302D and M-302E with ranges of 100-130 miles (160-215 km), putting all of Israel in their range from Gaza. They were made in Syria.

The IDF Intelligence sources were quoted by as saying that Iran’s Quds Force was behind the elaborate plan to ship the rockets by air from Damascus International Airport to Iran, presumably through Iraqi airspace, then taking them to Bandar Abbas.

The ship, KLOS C (IMO: 8918710; MMSI: 373773000), is a general cargo vessel registered in Panama. The IDF says the ship left Bandar Abbas, made a stop at Iraqi port of Umm Qasr, where it loaded some more cargo containers, and then sailed toward Sudan. IDF says by stopping in Iraq, the Iranians were obscuring their tracks. IDF was reportedly following the weapons transfer for several months.

The ship was intercepted at 05:30 local time on Wednesday in the Red Sea by Shayetet 13, Israeli navy’s special forces, and along with its 17-man crew was taken to an Israeli port.

Later today, the Israeli foreign ministry said that it will lodge a formal complaint with UN Security Council against Iran. If the Iranians were behind the shipment, they are in violation of UNSC resolutions 1747 and 1929, prohibiting arms exports from Iran, and they could be referred to a special Iran sanctions committee set up by UNSC under resolution 1737.

UPDATE: The State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Wednesday that the U.S. military was prepared to get involved in the seizure of the cargo ship KLOS C.  Psaki added, however, that Israel “ultimately chose to take the lead.” The U.S. and Israel worked together, Psaki said, to track the ship.

UPDATE: Iran has denied the report, calling it “totally without foundation.” (Al Alam, 5 March)

Sources: AP, AFP, Defense-Update, JewishPress (5 March 2014)

File photo above: KLOS C seen at one of its recent port visits. (Super Jeq/marinetraffic.com)
Photos below, from top to bottom:
- Israeli naval commandos inspecting wooden carts containing M-302 rockets loaded on the KLOS-C. (IDF/JewishPress)
- Special operators of IDF’s naval commando unit ‘Shayetet 13′ in a training exercise on a Sa’ar 5-class Corvette of the Israeli Navy. (IDF.JewishPress)
- A still photo grabbed from an IDF video showing sacks of cement allegedly used to hide the missiles.