BICOM

As European Union (EU) foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton met Iranian officials yesterday in Tehran to discuss the country’s nuclear programme, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu questioned whether she raised the issue of last week’s seizure of an apparent Iranian arms shipment destined for Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli forces took control of the ship last Wednesday in international waters near the Sudanese coast, a full 930 miles from Israel. The vessel was towed into the southern Israeli port of Eilat on Saturday and found to contain 40 Syrian-made long range M-302 rockets, 180 mortar shells and 400,000 bullets. The shipment had been sent to Tehran from Damascus and was headed for Port Sudan, from where it is thought it would have been smuggled overland into the Gaza Strip.

Speaking at yesterday’s cabinet meeting, Netanyahu questioned whether Ashton “asked her Iranian hosts about this shipment of weapons for terrorist organisations, and if not, why not.” He added, “Nobody has the right to ignore the true and murderous actions of the regime in Tehran.” Netanyahu is scheduled to travel to Eilat today, where he will inspect the captured arms cache alongside Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon, Deputy Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Gadi Eizenkot and Navy commander V.-Adm. Ram Rotenberg.

Meanwhille, Ashton, who heads the P5+1 delegation (US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany) in nuclear talks with Iran, met with Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Zarif yesterday in Tehran. During a joint press conference, there was no mention of the seized arms shipment. Ashton focused fully on the talks between the two sides over Iran’s nuclear development. Both sides agreed a six-month deal in November but are now engaged in talks to broker a longer term agreement. Ashton called the process “difficult” and “challenging” and commented, “there is no guarantee we will succeed” in agreeing an accord. Zarif emphasised that a deal must respect Iran’s “rights” to enrich uranium.