Karine A

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Some of the weapons found on the Karine A.
Some of the weapons found on the Karine A.

The Karin A (also Karine A) was a 4,000 ton freighter intercepted by the Israel Defense Forces on 3 January 2002 which was found to be carrying 50 tons of weapons. The IDF claimed the weapons were for the use of the Palestinian Authority - which would constitute a breach on the PA's part of the Oslo Accords - and that they were to be clandestinely offloaded into PA hands at Gaza. Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat however, denied any involvement. While the IDF maintains that the weapons were bound for the PA, other sources have suggested that the weapons may instead have been headed to Lebanon for the use of the Islamic militant group Hezbollah.[1] However, the New York Times called Arafat's denial, "implausible." [2] Some academics, such as Matthew Levitt, [3] Anthony Cordesman [4] and Efraim Karsh [5] have also supported the view that the ship was smuggling Iranian weapons to the Palestinian Authority.

While the ship itself was worth an estimated $400,000 and the civilian cargo used to conceal the weapons approximately $3,000,000, the weapons were estimated at a value of approximately $15,000,000. The equipment included Katyusha rockets, mortars, sniper rifles, bullets, anti-tank mines, anti-tank missiles, as well as over two and a half tons of pure explosives. Maj. Gen. Yedidya Yaari, the commander of the Israeli Navy, reported that they were packed in 83 crates in waterproof plastic and attached to buoys, to permit their drop-off and retrieval at sea.

The mission began at 04:45 of January 3 in the Red Sea, 300 miles from Israel. Israeli Navy commandos surprised the crew and took over the vessel without firing a single bullet. Immediately after, they were joined by combat helicopters and aircraft, and the ship was taken to Eilat the night of January 4.

Lieutenant General Shaul Mofaz, chief of staff of the Israeli Army, announced in a Tel Aviv news conference on January 4 that the army had seized the ship while General Anthony Zinni was meeting with Yasser Arafat to promote negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

The captain of the vessel was Omar Akawi, a Fatah activist since 1976 and former member of the Palestinian Authority. According to the Beirut newspaper The Daily Star, the alleged purchaser of the weapons, Adel Salameh (aka Adel 'Moghrabi`) was a former member of Yassir Arafat's staff until the early 1980's "when he was dismissed for conducting private business which conflicted with his official status".[1]

Israeli reports state that the ship, purchased from Lebanon, loaded weapons at the Iranian island of Kish in the middle of the night off the coast of Iran. It then sailed through the Gulf of Oman, the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the Red Sea. [6]

According to Lloyd's List, which tracks worldwide shipping records, the ship belongs to Iraqi Ali Mohammed Abbas, who purchased it on August 31, 2001 from a Lebanese company. It was renamed from Rim K to Karine A when it was registered in Tonga on September 12. Tonga has confirmed that Abbas is still the owner of the ship.

Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak questioned the idea that an unidentified ship carrying illegal arms could travel through a waterway in which the US routinely monitors and boards ships looking for smuggled Iraqi oil and goods, through the Red Sea, and through water monitored by Egypt and Saudi Arabia on the approach to the Suez Canal. He also questioned the plausibility of a plan to pass through inspections at the Suez canal and make it to Gaza (where Palestinian fishermen would bring it in) to then offload 50 tons of weapons.[citation needed]

It has also been suggested that the ship instead was bound for Hezbollah.[1] Iranian supporters of Hezbollah have typically supplied the group via airplane, but airspace restrictions have severely limited their ability to do this. Iran has no diplomatic ties to the Palestinian Authority and opposes the Oslo Accords. However, this contradicts the testimony given by Akawi, who furthermore claims that he had been training in Libya during his time since leaving the Palestinian Authority (a claim denied by Libya).

Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestinian Authority, dismissed the chief of military financial affairs, Brig. Gen. Fouad al-Shoubaki, in connection with the incident. [7] al-Shoubaki was taken into custody by Israeli forces in 2006 following the Jericho Prison raid.[8]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c The Strange Affair of Karine-A, Brian Whitaker, Guardian Unlimited, January 21 2002.
  2. ^ Arafat's Implausible Denials , January 10, 2002, New York Times, [1]
  3. ^ Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad, by Page 176 by Matthew Levitt, 2006, p. 176
  4. ^ The Israeli-Palestinian War: Escalating to Nowhere , by Anthony H. Cordesman 2005, p. 277
  5. ^ Arafat's War: The Man and His Battle for Israeli Conquest , by Efraim Karsh, 2004, p. 236
  6. ^ Seized Arms Would Have Vastly Extended Arafat Arsenal - New York Times
  7. ^ CNN, January 29, 2002 Arafat fires official over arms ship, Accessed August 3, 2006
  8. ^ CNN, March 14, 2006 Palestinian prisoners surrender to Israeli troops Accessed August 3, 2006

[edit] External links