By BARRY SCHWEID, AP Diplomatic Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Switching gears, the State Department accepted as ``credible'' Israel's allegations that the Palestinians were trying to smuggle in rockets and other weapons by sea.
``We have some of the evidence. We don't have all of it,'' spokesman Richard Boucher said Tuesday.
``We're waiting to hear a full explanation of the incident'' from Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Boucher said. On Wednesday, Israeli military intelligence officials are due to call at the State Department.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld expressed unqualified support for Israel in its seizure of the ship.
``They clearly had very good intelligence that those weapons were going to be used against them and they intercepted the ship by pre-empting that ship from landing and unloading and then providing those weapons to be used against Israel,'' Rumsfeld said on C-Span.
``The United States has done a similar thing with respect to various ship interceptions and maritime interceptions as they're called, and it is something I think that is not unusual or not uncalled for when one thinks of the magnitude of the weapon stash that was on that ship.''
On Monday, four days after the ``Karine A'' was captured by Israeli naval commandos in the Red Sea some 300 miles from Israel, Boucher said the State Department had not assembled the facts and could not determine whether the ship was making a delivery for the Palestinian Authority.
Boucher gave reporters a revised account after Israel's justice minister, Meir Shitreet, told Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage that 50 tons of weapons aboard the intercepted vessel were intended for delivery to Palestinian fighters.
``There is no doubt Arafat is responsible,'' Shitreet said.
Boucher did not link Arafat to the smuggling. ``I would say we're waiting to hear a full explanation of the incident from Chairman Arafat,'' he said.
``We are deeply concerned about the situation, about the involvement of Palestinians in this arms shipment,'' Boucher said. ``We have expressed that concern directly and early to Chairman Arafat. We've told him we need a full explanation. He's now promised a full investigation.''
Boucher said U.S. diplomats had examined some of the weapons. ``The quantity and the quality of these shipments are of serious concern. I think we find the fact that there are Palestinians involved in shipping these weapons deeply troubling,'' he said.
An Israeli official said the arsenal included armor-piercing weapons designed to disable Israeli tanks. And Shitreet said 3,400 pounds of C4 explosive, a common terrorist weapon, were in the cargo.
``We have no doubt about the connection to Arafat,'' Shitreet said. Echoing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites), he called Arafat a liar and said Israel had intercepted three other such shipments in the past, but that a fourth succeeded in arming guerrillas in Lebanon.
Shitreet said the weapons seized last week were not bound for the Hezbollah fighters, who are conducting a cross-border, low-level war with Israel, since Iran, which Israel accuses of providing the weapons, is able to arm the guerrillas through Syria easily.
The weapons, which included rockets, would have posed a high danger to Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities, he said.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi, speaking Monday on Iranian TV, said Israel made up the allegations to ``intensify a crackdown on the Palestinian intefadeh,'' or uprising.
Despite it all, Shitreet said Israel was prepared to resume negotiations with the Palestinian Authority once there have been seven days of calm.
He said Israel's dispute was not with the Palestinian people; the minister said Israel was making sure they had sufficient food, electricity and other supplies.
The ship's captain, Omar Akawi, has said in jailhouse interviews that he picked up the weapons at Iran's Qeys island, just off the country's southwest coast.
Akawi said he works in the Palestinian Transportation Ministry, and agreed to smuggle the weapons because ``it's the Palestinian right to defend ourselves.''
In the 1993 Oslo Accords with Israel, the Palestinian Authority agreed to limit the kind and amount of weapons it would amass. The arms aboard the ship went beyond those limits.
``I don't want to say the Oslo Accords are dying,'' Shitreet said. ``But they are very sick.''
File this article in the local trash bin along with this comment.
Have you ever read a more incompetent analysis than this ?
Could it ? have been ? Nah, that would be too rich.
Did Pat Buchanan write this ?
Not once does the author state a single FACT to support his biased claim that the ship wasn't destined for the Palis. Meanwhile (back on earth) I saw the captain of the ship on national television this morning stating explicitly that he was ordered by a very high level Arafat cronie to pick up the weapons from Iran and deliver them to the Palestinians.
Now, what in the world would Israel have to gain by releasing misinformation !!
Stratfor.com with egg on it's face! <-;
Who are these bozos?
But has no effect on Stratfor's insanity.
One also ponders the size of the Palestinian
Navy.
Yeah those brilliant Palestians couldn't be behind this.