Naharnet Newsdesk - Lebanese Army: Ship was Loaded at Egypt Port and Weapon-Free

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Lebanese Army: Ship was Loaded at Egypt Port and Weapon-Free

The Intelligence Directorate in the Lebanese Army continued its interrogations with the crew of the ship Francop which arrived in Beirut's port Friday afternoon after its release by the Israeli navy. According to the confessions of the crew, the ship was fully loaded at Egypt's Damietta port.
According to a communique released by the Army command, the ship was supposed to unload consecutively at the ports of Limassol, Beirut, and Latakia. Before the ship's arrival to the Cypriot Limassol port, it was subjected to Israeli piracy and forced to head to Israeli Ashdud port.

The crew was seized in Ashdud, and 97 containers of the ship's load were confiscated, a part was returned to the ship, and 36 containers were kept in the aforementioned port.

The communique added that the inspection of the containers in Ashdud did not happen in front of the crew's eyes, knowing that the 36 containers still confiscated by Israel were bound to be unloaded at Syria's Latakia port.

Earlier, the crew has denied that the vessel was carrying Iranian weapons destined for Hizbullah, security sources told An Nahar newspaper.

According to the source, Israel would have arrested Francop's crew if it had found arms aboard the ship. The Jewish state should have also called for an international probe into the incident if its allegations were true, the source told An Nahar.

Francop entered on Friday Lebanese waters where authorities are questioning its crew, the army said.

"The Francop ship entered Lebanese territorial waters at noon today and, upon its arrival off Beirut port, the navy in cooperation with U.N. naval forces searched the vessel," an army communiqué said.

"Military intelligence began interrogating the crew on the motives for the seizure of the vessel while the concerned authorities... will take all the necessary measures to ensure it does not carry banned goods," it said.

Israel said the ship which it intercepted around 100 nautical miles from the Israeli coast overnight Wednesday was carrying "hundreds of tons" of weapons.

Israeli media reported the military tracked the containers from Iran to the Egyptian port of Damietta, where they were transferred onto the German-owned Francop vessel en route to Syria.

However, the security sources told An Nahar that investigation carried out by the Lebanese army intelligence on Friday showed that the vessel was heading from Iran to Syria with foodstuff on board and stopped in Damietta. Then it continued its journey to Syria before being stopped by Israel.

The sources wondered why Israel didn't seize the ship's cargo in Damietta if it was carrying weapons as the Jewish state alleges.

Beirut, 07 Nov 09, 09:03


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