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Germany sending back Israeli military shipment said headed for
Iran
Thu Aug 29,10:39 AM ET

BERLIN - Germany said Thursday it is returning to Israel an
impounded
cargo of military equipment that Israel says a private firm was
shipping
to Iran without government approval.

Hamburg customs inspectors discovered the two containers holding
treads
for armored personnel carriers in mid-August on a ship in the
city's
port. The cargo was being transferred from one freighter to
another for
onward transport to Iran, customs authorities said in a statement.

Acting under German arms export laws forbidding the sale of
military
equipment to Iran, the German Economics Ministry blocked the
transport,
the statement said, adding that the load was to be shipped back to
Israel on Thursday.

Iran denied any involvement and German officials refused to give
further
details, but Israeli officials said they and Germany were
conducting a
joint investigation.

"We are treating this issue very seriously," Israeli Defense
Minister
Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told reporters in Jerusalem.

Confirming the seizure Wednesday, his ministry said it had given a
private Israeli company permission to export the Israeli-made
treads
based on the company's declaration that their final destination was
Thailand.

"The Defense Ministry forbids sale of military equipment, spare
parts
and weapons of any kind to Iran," the Israeli ministry said,
adding that
it was turning the matter over to the country's police.

Israel TV said the name of the firm was Piad, headed by Avichai
Weinstein.

Haim Misgav, Weinstein's attorney, told Israeli radio his client's
shipment did not break any regulations.

"It's not arms, its only treads for armored personnel carriers.
It's not
something that can kill people," Misgav said.

Misgav added that the goods had been sold to a Thai company, so
should
not be Israel's concern any longer.

"The Thai company, which is the owner ... can do whatever it wants
with
them," he said.

In the past, Israeli arms merchants have been sentenced to prison
terms
for selling military equipment to Iran, but in the 1980s, the
Israeli
government was involved in a complicated deal involving the United
States, Nicaragua and Iran that eventually became known as
"Irangate."

In Tehran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi denied that
Iran
was the intended destination, the official Islamic Republic News
Agency
reported.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran has no sort of relationship with the
Zionist regime and such propaganda suggests that Israel considers
the
world's public to be naive," Asefi was quoted as saying.

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