Iran is using European ports to provide cover for shipments of weapons to Hezbollah, The Telegraph can reveal.
The Lebanese terror group has received missiles and bombs on ships that go on to dock in ports in Belgium, Spain and Italy, sources said.
Hezbollah and Israel are close to all-out war amid daily exchanges of cross-border fire, causing border regions to be evacuated.
Iran has switched to shipping weapons by sea after Israel’s air force began to target consignments coming in by land into northern Syria via Iraq, the source said.
Weapons and other goods are now shipped to the Syrian port of Latakia before the vessels go on to ports in Antwerp, Valencia and Ravenna, the Telegraph was told, in an attempt to disguise the purpose of the journeys.
From Latakia, the weapons are transported south to Lebanon.
“Using Europe helps to hide the nature and the source of the shipments, switching paperwork and containers… to clean the shipments,” a senior intelligence source in Israel said.
“Europe has huge ports so Iran is using that as a camouflage. It’s very easy to do manipulations in those big ports where things have to get moved quickly, rather than a small port where there will be more scrutiny.
“It’s like a cat and mouse between us and the Iranians. They’re trying to smuggle and we’re trying to stop it. It’s been at least three years like this.”
#iran #hezbollah #israel #israelpalestineconflict #gaza #palestine #worldnews
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