Captured Gaza-bound weapon ship just one of many

Israeli navy commando forces on Tuesday morning intercepted a Gaza-bound ship and found huge quantities of weapons on board.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that "we are currently collecting information and the one thing that is certain is that the weapons are from Iran with a relay station in Syria."

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday commented that " today, the IDF and its fighters thwarted the smuggling of weaponry, which was due to have been used against the residents of Israel, to the Gaza Strip. The goal of the smuggling was to harm the security of Israel."

The ship Victoria started out at Latakia Port in Syria, and then traveled to the Port of Mersin in Turkey before setting out to its final destination Alexandria Port in Egypt. Aalysts said that ships smuggling weapons to Palestinian groups in Gaza is not a new phenomena. However, they said, using Syria as a transit could be the sign of a new trend in arms struggle.

Syria enboldened

Barak Seener, a research fellow at Royal United Services Institute in London, told Xinhua that what we are seeing now is the effect of a more bold Syria backed by Iran which is constantly trying to expand its influence in the region.  "A couple of weeks ago, we had an Iranian ship going through the Suez Canal and it was testing the international community, especially Israel," Seener said.

The aim of the passage was to see what the response might be, Seener said, Israel "was mistaken" not to have a response and just letting the ships pass by, the two naval vessels sail on international water outside of Israel's sea border.

Israel's failure to respond resulted in a precedence that would make Syria and its backer Iran become more bold in their actions, according to Seener. This will result in a contained flow of ships from Iran via Syria to Gaza, he added.

"The problem is that it's inadequate merely to intercept the ship," Seener said, "there has to be a precedent set so that these ships won't continue sailing."  

One of the ways that Iran determines the limits of its foreign policy and regional reach, Seener argued, is by constantly pushing boundaries and seeing what it can get away with.

NEW ROUTE

Amir Rapaport, a researcher at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies and a former military correspondent of Israel newspaper Yedioth Ahronot, said that the smuggling of weapons to Gaza has been going on for some time and isn't connected to regional upheaval.

"If you look at the whole picture, it's just one of many," Rapaport said, "they (Iran, Syria and Hamas) are trying to do a transport every few weeks."