“Israel’s Defense Intelligence units have been piecing together, for many months, the puzzle regarding the arms smuggling,” Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi said in a press briefing Thursday morning. His remarks referred to an IDF operation on Wednesday, which intercepted an Iranian weapons shipment on its way to terrorists in the Gaza Strip.
Maj. Gen. Kochavi emphasized that the shipment without doubt originated in Iran. “We have good, solid, incriminating evidence that Iran planned, managed and executed this arms smuggling,” he said. The Quds Force, a special unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, was the prime force behind the arms shipment, he noted.
The smuggling attempt was the latest in a long line of Iran’s attempts to ship weapons to terror groups in the region. “This is yet another example of the ongoing process, the ongoing effort of the Iranians to undermine the stability of the Middle East,” Maj. Gen. Kochavi said. Iran’s goal is ”to undermine regimes and to support all forms of terror organizations in Lebanon, in Syria, in Iraq, in Bahrain, in Yemen, in Libya and in the Gaza Strip, which was the destination of these rockets.”
UN Resolution 1747 forbids Iran from engaging in arms smuggling, he said. “Again and again, Iran violated the decision of the UN Security Council that prohibits it from selling and transferring weaponry.”
