The passage of an Israeli ship, loaded with military equipment, was blocked by German customs officials in Hamburg claiming its cargo was headed for the Iranian port of Bander Abbas.
The shipment, containing 3,000 Israeli-made rubber-treads for armored personnel vehicles, was dispatched by the private Israeli company P.A.D. onboard the Zim Antwerp ship, confirmed the Israeli defense ministry. The sale of military equipment or spare parts for weapons of any kind to Iran is prohibited under Israeli law.
The company was authorized by the Israeli defense ministry to export such merchandise based on its declaration that the cargo’s final destination was Thailand. The consignment was to be rerouted through a German company.
Businessman Avihai Weinstein, owner of the PAD company, had been arrested in February 2000, along with his partner and brother-in-law of Eli Cohen, on suspicion of selling Canadian army vehicles, engines and spare parts to Iran during 1996-1997.
Although the Israeli-Iranian ties were severed following the Islamic revolution of 1979, Israel continued to supply arms to its former ally through the eight-year Iran-Iraq war. American pressures brought the arms deals to a temporary halt, but in the 1986 Israel was again entangled in a secret deal, dubbed ‘Irangate’, involving the US, Nicaragua and Iran.
In 1998, an Israeli court sentenced Israeli businessman Nahum Manbar to 16 years in prison for selling Iran the chemicals, equipment and knowhow for chemical warfare. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
