'We stop Iranian arms smuggling often,' says Israeli security source

Jerusalem Post ^ | March 6, 2014 | Yaakov Lappin

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Iran "will investigate how it was exposed, will stop smuggling to Gaza for months" after exposure, source adds.

At any given time, Israel's defense establishment is monitoring Iranian arms smuggling and terror-financing networks, a security source revealed on Thursday, a day after the Israel Navy intercepted an Iranian attempt to smuggle powerful rockets to the Gaza Strip on a commercial ship off the coast of Sudan.

Currently, IDF Military Intelligence is managing investigations "no less significant" than the Iranian attempt to bring Syrian-made M-302 rockets to Gaza, the source added, describing the covert investigations as part of a far wider "war between wars." Not a week passes by without Israel blocking or thwarting an Iranian attempt to transmit arms to terrorist entities threatening Israeli national security.

All of Israel's intelligence agencies are involved in this effort, the source stated, including Military Intelligence's various units, Mossad, and the Shin Be. "We're working together, with a lot of transparency," he added.

There are a variety of ways to disrupt illicit Iranian arms shipments, the source said. A drone can be used for the job he added. At the center of the global Iranian arms network is the Quds Force, an elite unit of the Iranian Republican Guards Corps tasked with "exporting the Islamic Revolution," and comprising thousands of operatives. Headed by Qassem Suleimani, described by the source as a "skilled mastermind," the organization is working daily to arm Israel's enemies.

"We are stopping them in many ways," the source said. Counteractions against the Quds Force can take the form of sharing the name of a bank used for financing the movement of arms with other countries, or exposing the name of a company that provides components for missiles.

After Military Intelligence researchers focus in on an Iranian network, he said.