TEL AVIV Ñ Israel has acknowledged that a shipment of armored
personnel components for Thailand was meant to be diverted to Iran.
Israeli officials said an Israeli firm is being investigated in
connection with a shipment of APC parts that were sent to Hamburg and was
meant to have been sent to Thailand. The officials said the company being
probed is headed by an Israeli national who had been suspected in 1999 of
trying to send APC equipment to Iran.
The Israeli APC shipment aboard a private Israeli vessel was seized by
German customs authorities on Wednesday in Hamburg. The shipment was sent by
the Israeli company P.A.D., headed by Avichai Weinstein.
"The shipment sent by a private company from Israel to Germany was
seized by the German customs authorities," an Israeli Defense Ministry
statement said.
Israeli officials stressed that the shipment of 3,000 Israeli-made
rubber treads for armored personnel carriers left legally and did not
consist of weapons or lethal equipment. They said the Defense Ministry,
which processes 5,000 defense export applications annually totalling $2
billion, did not know that the final destination was Iran.
"If we had approved a shipment of shoes and they would have reached Iran
and have beenworn by Iranian commandos, it would have taken a year for us to
learn about this," Defense Ministry weapons export director Yossi Ben Hanan
said. "This is because shoes are not on our list of items that requires
final destination."
Ben Hanan said rubber treads are also not on a list that requires proof
of final destination. He said that a statement by the exporter is all that
is required.
The Defense Ministry has filed a complaint with Israeli police regarding
the P.A.D shipment. Weinstein's attorney, Haim Misgav, said his client was
told the destination for the APC components was Thailand.
"Nothing was done under the table," Misgav said. "The state of Israel
doesn't check the final destination. When Israel sells unmanned air
vehicles, it doesn't know the final destination."
In 2000, Weinstein's son-in-law Eli Cohen, was accused of selling tank
engines to Iran. The accusations were dropped.
