Arms traders Avihai Weinstein and Eli Cohen have been arrested on suspicion of arms trafficking with Iran, and are being interrogated in Israel by the Ministry of Defense, the Israel Police, and other authorities. This is the sixth time in the past twelve years that Cohen has been investigated for alleged arms trafficking with Iran.
Earlier this week, the Greek media reported that Israeli arms traders had tried to smuggle to Iran spare parts for F-4 Phantom jets through Greece in violation of the arms embargo against Iran.
Cohen and Weinstein had previously tried to sell arms, including spare parts for armored personnel carriers and Phantom jets, and guidance systems for the Hawk antiaircraft missile to Iran through the US, Germany, Thailand, Portugal, and other countries.
Cohen had been under house arrest in the US, and paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines, but the Israeli authorities were unable to prove that Iran was the final destination of the shipments, and he was repeatedly released and his arms trading license was restored. The investigation into his affairs is continuing.
According to the Greek media report, US Homeland Security Investigations agents and Greek financial crimes investigators discovered the latest shipment of Phantom spare parts in two containers. Phantoms, procured during the era of the Shah, are still the mainstay of the Iranian Air Force.
The Greek media says that the investigation occurred in two stages, one in December 2012 and the second in April 2013. In both cases, agents found containers in Greece filled with Phantom spare parts. The containers' origin was Binyamina and Givat Ada with the name of an Athens-based straw company Tasus Karas. The phone number of company's contact person belongs to a British citizen who resides in Thessaloniki, whom the Greek authorities could not locate.
On the basis of the investigation, a Greek court stopped the shipments and ordered them delivered to the US government.
If the report is true, the case involves a serious infringement of the international arms embargo against Iran and a major embarrassment for Israel.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 20, 2014
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