Iran: Israel out to sidetrack UN with ship claim

Tehran says Tel Aviv spread 'false' claims about seizing a ship with Iranian ammunition to sway attention away from the Goldstone report on Israeli war crimes, Press TV reported.

"We strongly reject such claims. Israel has made this accusation to distract the international community's attention away from the investigating committee's report on atrocities it committed in Gaza," Iran's UN mission said in a statement.

On Wednesday, Israel alleged that it had seized a huge cache of weapons when raiding an Antigua-flagged vessel around 100 nautical miles from its shores.

Tel Aviv said the "hundreds of kilograms of Iranian-made arms" were destined either for Hezbollah or Syria, a claim that quickly drew rejections from Iran, Syria and Hezbollah.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem said that contrary to Israel's claims, "the ship was not carrying Iranian-made weaponry for Syria or Lebanon", but was in fact carrying Syrian-made items for consumption in Iran.

As the UN general assembly was busy reviewing the Goldstone report, Israel's UN mission submitted a letter to the Security Council accusing Iran of violating Resolution 1701, which was issued to stop Tel Aviv's 2006 offensive against Lebanon.

Iran's responded to the allegation by reminding the Zionist regime that Tel Aviv has breached "not one but several" UN Security Council resolutions, including that very same motion.