Iran and Syria Deny Israel Claims

First, a quick recap of yesterday's news. Yesterday (4th November 2009), Israeli commandos boarded a ship traveling the Mediterranean and found fully loaded arms and ammunition containers on board. It was claimed that the munitions were supplied by Iran and were destined for Lebanon, to be supplied to the Hezbollah group. As Israel had reportedly increased its efforts to stop weapons smuggling in the region, to both the Hezbollah and Hamas militants, it was not amused by this finding. In fact, a sack containing polyethylene is even put on display at the port of Ashdod with the labels of 'Made in Iran'. Not being the quiet type, Israel had immediately reported to the world that Iran and Syria were supplying weaponry to one of the most troubled regions in the Middle East.

Toady, both Iran and Syria have come out and denied allegations that weapons supplied by Iran were headed for Syria in the captured vessel. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem held a joint news conference in Tehran to refute these claims. Not only did they deny the claims, Mr Muallem made some subtle counter allegations on Israel when he went ahead and said this, "Unfortunately, some official pirates in the seas, sometimes in the name of the navy, sometimes in the name of inspection, obstruct trade movement between Syria and Iran. This ship does not carry Iranian weapons to Syria and does not contain military material to manufacture weapons in Syria. This ship carries imported goods from Syria to Iran."

Even if this was true this time, Iran and Syria are victims of their own reputation. The reputation that Iran and Syria are the main sponsors of the Shia group Hezbollah precedes them today. Israel is not taking too kindly to the arms smuggling and neither to the counter allegations given its history that saw a month long war with the Hezbollah in 2006, that killed 1200 people in Lebanon and about 160 in Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saw that Israel has indisputable proof for the allegations, in the form of the ship's cargo certificates. Though he claimed that these certificates show that the ship had sailed from Iran and was bound for Syria, the military has refused to bring the documents out in the open.

One thing is for sure, it seems that the peace in the region is very fragile and most probably a calm before the storm. BBC's Middle East analyst Roger Hardy says that both Israel and Hezbollah seem to be operating on a shared assumption that sooner or later their war will be reignited.