Posted on 11/20/2012 7:04:10 AM PST by Former Fetus
An Iranian 150-ton freighter departed Bandar Abbas port Sunday, Nov. 18, with a cargo of 220 short-range missiles and 50 improved long-range Fajar-5 rockets for the Gaza Strip, debkafile's intelligence sources report. The ship turned toward the Bab al-Mandeb Straits and the Red Sea.
The new Fajar-5s have a 200-kilo warhead, which packs a bigger punch than the 175 kilos of explosives delivered by the rockets in current use with the Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip. To extend their range to cover the 85 kilometers from Gaza to Tel Aviv, Hamas removed a part of their payloads to make them lighter.
Tehran is sending the fresh supply of disassembled rockets to replenish the stocks its allies, the Palestinian Hamas and Jihad Islami, depleted in their round-the-clock attacks on Israel since Nov. 10.
To throw Israeli surveillance off the trail, the ship started its voyage called Vali-e Asr owned by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, and was quickly renamed Cargo Star and hoisted the flag of Tuvalu. This South Pacific island nation, which lies between Hawaii and Australia, has a tiny population of 11,000, most of them Polynesians. Iran provides most of its revenue since earlier this year when Prime Minister Willy Telavi agreed to register Iran's entire tanker fleet of 22 vessels to Tuvalu, to help Tehran dodge the US-EU oil embargo.
Our intelligence sources have learned that four big Sudanese shipping boats sailed out of Port Sudan early Monday and are waiting to rendezvous with the Cargo Star and offload its missile cargo in mid-sea.
The Sudanese will then be told by Tehran whether put into Port Sudan with the missiles, or turn north and sail up the Red Sea to the Straits of Tiran to link up with Egyptian fishing boats which regularly ply this waterway in the service of Palestinian-Iranian smuggling networks. They would unload the missile cargo in a quiet inlet on the Sinai coast. From there, it would be carried to the smuggling tunnels running from Sinai under the border into the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian teams assisted by Iranian and Hizballah technicians in the Gaza Strip would then assemble the new rockets and make them operational.
Through most of the voyage, two Iranian warships, the Khark heliicopter carrier and Shahid Naqdi destroyer, which are posted permanently in the Red Sea, escorted the arms ship until the cargo changed hands.
debkafile's Iranian sources also disclose that the Jihad Islami leader Ramadan Abdullah Shelah was sharply remanded by Tehran for meeting Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi in Cairo Sunday to discuss terms for halting Israel's counter-missile operation in Gaza now in its sixth day.
Iran bankrolls these Palestinian extremists and has no intention of letting Shelah bow to Cairo's wishes which run counter to Tehran's plans and interests.
While Egypt's new Islamist leaders are intent on carving out for themselves a responsible role in the region by restoring order, solving crises and restraining radicals, radical Iran has its own fish to fry and is bent on escalating war tensions in the Middle East.
fire one....
Run silent.
Run deep.
One of Hamas’ demands is that the blockade be lifted. Wonder where those 12k missiles came from given the blockade? I think the Israelis will have to invade. The media seems to think Israel should just take it because of the small number of Israeli deaths due to the inaccuracy of the missiles. Still the missiles totally disrupt the country because people must always be running to shelters. Leaving Gaza was always a bad idea.
Bigger question: would A US Navy sub obey orders to sink any Israeli sub trying to attack Iranian ships?
One option would be for Israel to do a "march to the sea" along Gaza's border with Egypt, destroying smuggling tunnels as they go, and declaring a one-mile-wide zone of control there.
Trucks carrying food and medicine from Egypt could pass after inspection, but no Muslims would be allowed in that zone except in trucks passing through.
In other words, you are saying that Israel should re-take the Philadelphi Corridor. I would hate to be the mother of the IDF soldier stationed there, between Gaza and Egypt. Let Israel take over the whole Gaza strip and give 48 hours for anybody who wants to escape to Egypt before the border is sealed!
If true, why hasn’t Obama orderd our Navy to capture that ship? It would seem the proper thing to do for Israel. Wait, Obama, Muslim, of course not.
If this ship was headed for Washington DC (with the same intentions) I wonder how we'd think about it...
The Israeli’s have submarines-—us them.
You would also have to deal with the Iranian helicopter carrier and frigate who are escorting the cargo ship. Not that Israel couldn’t do it, but an attack on another nation’s warships is an undisputable act of war. I don’t think Israel is ready for that complication just yet.
Any ship carrying even more weapons to the terrorist gangs simply will not reach its intended destination.
...the ship started its voyage called Vali-e Asr owned by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, and was quickly renamed Cargo Star and hoisted the flag of Tuvalu. This South Pacific island nation, which lies between Hawaii and Australia, has a tiny population of 11,000, most of them Polynesians. Iran provides most of its revenue since earlier this year when Prime Minister Willy Telavi agreed to register Iran's entire tanker fleet of 22 vessels to Tuvalu, to help Tehran dodge the US-EU oil embargo.Sink it. What's Iran going to do, complain about a reflagged vessel loaded with missiles that they're obviously trying to hide?
Perhaps the ship will suffer a “work accident” along the way.
You can certainly use limpet mines. But, if the Iranians are already essentially providing a naval escort for the ships, wouldn’t it be reasonable to presume they are also defending against a swimmer attack while at anchor as well?
Actually, what I was thinking of was a multi-jet strike using Harpoons (or some equivalent standoff weapon). Like I said in my original post, there is no doubt Israel could deliver a successful attack. There is just this pesky issue of it being an obvious and very overt act of war (because you will have to strike the Iranian escorts to neutralize their AA defences in order to get through to the cargo ship).
You can certainly use limpet mines. But, if the Iranians are already essentially providing a naval escort for the ships, wouldn’t it be reasonable to presume they are also defending against a swimmer attack while at anchor as well?
Actually, what I was thinking of was a multi-jet strike using Harpoons (or some equivalent standoff weapon). Like I said in my original post, there is no doubt Israel could deliver a successful attack. There is just this pesky issue of it being an obvious and very overt act of war (because you will have to strike the Iranian escorts to neutralize their AA defences in order to get through to the cargo ship).
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