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January 11, 2002
Incident "stupid": Palestinians
LAMIA LAHOUD and MARGOT DUDKEVITCH
JERUSALEM POST
Palestinians admitted Sunday that the weapons ship affair was an
"embarrassment" for the Palestinian Authority (PA), especially
since at least one member of Hezbollah was on board the ship, the
Karine A, with PA naval police officers. As well, the ship's captain
claims that a PA official was involved in the operation.
Israeli navy commandos captured the 22-year-old freighter and its
cargo of 50 tons of weapons in the Red Sea on Thursday, Jan. 3.
Most of the cargo was Iranian, according to Israeli Chief of General
Staff Lt.-Gen. Shaul Mofaz, and included short- and long-range Katyushas,
many Sagger and LAW anti-tank rockets, mortars, mines, explosives,
sniper rifles and bullets. The weapons are currently being stored
at the navy base in Eilat.
Hezbollah is on the U.S. list of terror groups whose funds have
been frozen. A senior PA security officer said he believed the ship's
cargo - or at least most of it - was intended for Hezbollah in Lebanon,
not the PA, but added that any co-operation between PA naval police
officers and Hezbollah was an embarrassment.
However, Omar Akawi, captain of the Karine A, has claimed that PA
officials were directly involved in the purchase and smuggling of
the arms it carried. He also said the initial preparations took
place after the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States.
Akawi, who was interviewed in Ashkelon Prison, said he was aware
the cargo was weapons headed for the PA.
"The weapons were a donation by the Islamic world to the Palestinian
people ... from Iran, Hezbollah," he said.
Describing himself as a member of Fatah since 1976, he said the
entire operation was supervised and overseen by PA official Adel
Awadallah, also known as Adel Mugrhabi, based in Greece. Akawi said
he did not know whether Awadallah acted alone and said it is possible
Arafat did not know about the plot.
Fatah and Hezbollah have a long history of co-operation in Lebanon.
Most of the officers in the naval police are Palestine Liberation
Organization fighters from Lebanon and many underwent military training
in Arab states. Palestinian sources said such collaboration, therefore,
is not unusual.
"There are also IDF [Israel Defence Force] officers who are
involved in smuggling weapons, that does not mean that the state
of Israel is responsible," one PA source said.
Privately, some Palestinians did not completely rule out PLO involvement
at the highest level, but many stressed that those involved in the
affair were "mercenaries" and did not act under direct
PA orders.
Most PA sources agreed that the incident was "stupid"
and an "embarrassment," whether the ship was carrying
weapons to Hezbollah or the Palestinians, with or without the knowledge
of the PA leadership.
One PA source said this incident may have destroyed all that was
achieved diplomatically over the past weeks.
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