Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells West: 'Drop your illusions about Iran'
Benjamin Netanyahu criticises the international community for failing to condemn a deadly weapons shipment he says was organised by Iran and bound for Palestinian militants
8:05PM GMT 10 Mar 2014
Benjamin Netanyahu accused the West of failing to condemn Iran's involvement in an intercepted weapons shipment on Monday because it wanted to delude itself that the country's leaders had changed course.
Standing beside an array of rockets, mortars and bullets seized from a ship that sailed from Iran, the Israeli prime minister said the international community was guilty of "hypocrisy" for failing to speak out while loudly denouncing Israel for continued settlement building.
"At most I heard a few faint condemnations of Iran from the international community," he said
"In contrast if we build a balcony in Jerusalem we hear harsh condemnation from the international community."
Mr Netanyahu was speaking at a naval base in the southern Israeli port of Eilat, where the arms haul was ceremoniously showcased in an event intended to draw the maximum propaganda value from the seizure of a merchant vessel on March 5 that Israel says was carrying supplies destined for Palestinians militants in Gaza.
The Israeli leader, who was accompanied by Moshe Ya'alon, the defence minister, and Major Gen Gadi Eizenkot, the army's deputy chief-of-staff, said the weapons shipment had been "organised, financed and dispatched" in Iran.
Forty M-302 rockets – with a range of up to 110 miles – 181 mortar shells and 400,000 7.62 calibre bullets were taken from the Panamanian-registered Klos C vessel after it was stormed by naval commandos in the Red Sea in what Israel says was a well-planned intelligence operation.
The rockets were flown from the Syrian capital Damascus to Tehran and later loaded onto the Kloss C in the southern Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, according to Israel. The ship's cargo was concealed under bags of Iranian cement.
Israel says the ship was bound for Port Sudan, from where the weapons would have gone to Gaza via Egypt.
While Monday's stage-managed event depicted the weaponry as representing "the true face of Iran," Mr Netanyahu said he had little faith that the world shared that view because of a determination to mend ties with the Islamic regime under its new president, Hassan Rouhani, who he dismissed as a "smiling PR man".
"There are those in the international community who would prefer that we were not holding this event today," he told a gathering of Israeli and international journalists who had been ferried to Eilat to witness the display of armoury.
"They feel uncomfortable that we are showing what is really happening in Iran. It's difficult for them to accept that we are exposing the truth behind the fake smile of Iran. They prefer to nurture the illusion that Iran has changed direction."
Without naming her, the Israeli leader reiterated earlier criticism of Baroness Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief, for making a "goodwill" visit to Tehran at the weekend intended to help pave the way for comprehensive agreement on Iran's nuclear programme.
"My message today is simple," Mr Netanyahu said. "Those engaged in self-deception must awaken from their slumber. We cannot allow Iran to have the capability to produce nuclear weapons."
Iran has refuted Israeli allegations of its involvement in the shipment. But even that was used by Israeli officials on Monday as evidence of the regime's duplicity and the West's willingness to succumb to its charm offensive.
A tweet from Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's English-speaking foreign minister, was prominently displayed in an area used to host journalists. It read: "An Iranian ship carrying arms for Gaza. Captured just in time for annual AIPAC anti Iran campaign. Amazing coincidence! Or same failed lies."
The tweet was exhibited next to posters showing Iranian missiles and demonstrators burning the US flag and holding banners reading "Death To America".
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