Karine-A captain: Weapons were PA-bound
The captain of the seized arms ship Karine-A, Omar Akawei, confirmed this evening his cargo was bound for the Palestinian Authority.
In a prison interview, the Palestinian naval captain seized by Israeli commandos with 50 tons of weapons on his ship said he's a longtime member of PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement who undertook the risky operation to help the outgunned Palestinians defend themselves.
"I'm a soldier. I obeyed orders," said Omar Akawei, adding that he picked up the rockets, mortars and anti-tank missiles just off Iran's coast in the Persian Gulf and that they were ultimately headed for PA-controlled Gaza.
Akawei, captured last Thursday along with 12 crewmen in the Red Sea, said he works in the Palestinian Transportation Ministry and received his instructions directly from an official in the PA.
The PA today confirmed Akawei was a mid-ranking member of its naval unit, but continued to strenuously insist it had nothing to do with the weapons shipment.
As the dispute surrounding his mission raged, Akawei gave interviews today to Israeli television and the Fox News Channel in the Ashkelon Prison on Israel's Mediterranean coast.
While expressing support for the Palestinian cause, Akawei appeared relaxed and comfortable and said he hoped that a Palestinian state might one day live in peace with Israel.
Describing himself as a Fatah member since 1976, Akawei said the operation was overseen by a PA official he identified as Adel Awadallah.
Israel says Awadallah is in charge of "smuggling operations" for the Palestinians, while the Palestinians have declined to discuss his position.
Akawei said he knew the operation had a high risk of failure, but he agreed to do it because "it's the Palestinian right to defend ourselves."
Akawei said he believed - but did not know for certain - that Iran and the militant Lebanese group Hizbullah were involved. One of his Palestinian crewmen had received training from Hizbullah in Lebanon, and recognized a Hizbullah man when the weapons were being loaded, Akawei said.
Israel said the weapons were loaded at Iran's Qeys island, just off the country's southwest coast.
As Akawei was bringing the shipment to the Red Sea, Arafat on December 16 called for an end to all attacks against Israel.
"That's when I was midway," Akawei said. "I expected to receive an order to stop." But when he spoke with Awadallah in late December, "he did not tell me to stop."
The captain said the plan was to go through the Suez Canal to Alexandria, Egypt, where three smaller vessels would pick up the weapons. Loaded in airtight containers, the weapons would then be placed in Mediterranean waters and allowed to drift to the Gaza coast.
At one point Akawei told Awadallah there was little chance the operation would succeed, saying Israel, the United States, or Egypt, which controls the Suez Canal, could all stop the ship and confiscate the weapons.
"Leave it to God," Awadallah said, according to Akawei.
Akawei said he did not know if senior Palestinian leaders were aware of the shipment, with an estimated value of tens of millions of dollars, an immense sum for the impoverished Palestinians.
jpost.com
Note: the Israelis are claiming up to $100 million, which I believe it exaggerated, but we're still not talking about "chump change" here. And the only one with access to that kind of cash would be Arafat, who controls the purse strings of the PA.
Also, the Egyptian Foreign Minister was trying to claim that he could not believe the Palestinians were behind the smuggling operation. Of course, he would say this because he means that the Egyptians have some complicity in making it possible through Alexandria. Typical CYA..
Hawk |
