LONDON — The British Foreign Office has decided to investigate how the
night-vision equipment reached Hizbullah fighters in southern Lebanon.
Officials said the infrared-based NVGs, which contains the inscription "Made
in Britain," could have been supplied to Hizbullah by Iran.
"The Israeli Defense Forces have told us that they have found some
night-vision equipment in southern Lebanon that they believe to have been
manufactured in Britain," a British Foreign Office spokesman said on Monday.
"We are seeking further details of the equipment to investigate whether it
is British and, if so, by whom it was made and to whom it was sold."
In 2003, Britain approved the export of 250 NVGs to Iran to bolster
anti-drug smuggling efforts along the border with Afghanistan, Middle East Newsline reported. London has
sold a range of military and dual-use equipment to Iran.
At the time, the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair asserted that
Iran guaranteed the end-user of the NVGs and other dual-use equipment. The
night-vision systems were sold under a United Nations program.
"We've been encouraging the Iranians as part of their anti-narcotics
program, and there was an export in 2003," a British official said.
The NVGs, which could detect people and vehicles at a range of several
kilometers, were identified as the Thermo-vision 1000 LR tactical
night-vision system. The system, said to have been found in the Lebanese
village of Mis-a-Jabel on Aug. 8, was manufactured by Agema, based in
Bedfordshire, England.
"You can also record what you are watching," Lt. Col. Olivier Radowicz,
an Israeli military spokesman, said. "Then, it is connected to computers.
You can obtain a perfect situational-awareness picture in real time. It is
then connected to firing systems or to units that are going to act in
accordance with the intelligence they are receiving. It is a system that we
can find in every serious army in the world."
