موقع يديعوت أحرنوت الإسرائيلي: وصول طائرة إيرانية محملة بالأسلحة إلى بيروت
يديعوت أحرنوت/30 تشرين الثاني/18
كشفت أنباء إسرائيلية عن وصول شحنة سلاح إيرانية إلى “حزب الله” اللبناني عبر طائرة إيرانية انطلقت من مطار طهران وهبطت في مطار رفيق الحريري الدولي في بيروت. وكشفت صحيفة ” يديعوت أحرنوت” الإسرائيلية أن طائرة من طراز “بوينغ 747” تابعة لشركة “فارس إير كيشم” الإيرانية انطلقت من طهران بحدود الساعة 8 صباحا ووصلت إلى مطار بيروت حوالي الساعة 10 دون أن يكون لديها محطات هبوط أخرى. وبحسب الصحيفة، فإن الطائرة تعود لصالح الحرس الثوري الإيراني وهي كانت تنقل أسلحة ومعدات متطورة لصالح “حزب الله” اللبناني. وأشارت الصحيفة أن الطائرة الإيرانية دخلت الخدمة منذ 27 عاما وكانت مملوكة من عدة شركات طيران روسية ويابانية وأفغانية وأرمينية قبل أن تقوم الشركة الإيرانية بشرائها. ويقوم الحرس الثوري استخدامها تحت غطاء مدني.
Iranian jet carrying arms flies directly to Beirut
Ynetnews/Itay Blumenthal/November 30/18
Iranian airline affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards reportedly continues transferring to Hezbollah advanced weapon systems meant to convert inaccurate projectiles into precision-guided missiles, conducting for the first time a direct flight from Tehran to the Lebanese capital. A Boeing 747 belonging to Iranian airline Fars Air Qeshm, reportedly used by the country’s Revolutionary Guards to smuggle weapons to Tehran’s allies, conducted a direct flight from the Iranian capital to Beirut for the first time on Thursday. Last month, Fox News reported that a Fars Air Qeshm flight from Tehran to Damascus, which later continued to Beirut, was carrying weapon systems—including GPS components—intended to convert inaccurate projectiles into precision-guided missiles. The 27-year-old Jumbo jet, registered as EP-FAB, took off on Thursday morning at 8:02am from Tehran to Beirut on flight QFZ9964, and landed in Lebanon at 10:19am. In the past, the jet has been in service of Japanese, Afghan, Armenian and Russian airlines. Suspicions first arose that Iran uses the cargo airline to smuggle advanced weapons two months ago after reports emerged that the Israel Air Force (IAF) carried out an attack on targets at the Damascus airport. “The Iranians are trying to find new ways to smuggle weapons to their allies in the Middle East … They are exploring the West’s ability to locate the smuggling sites,” said a Middle Eastern intelligence source, who chose to remain anonymous. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed two months ago, during a speech at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), that over the past year, Hezbollah—guided by Iran—has attempted to build an infrastructure for the conversion of surface-to-surface missiles into precision-guided missiles near an airport in Beirut. “I have a message for Hezbollah today: Israel also knows what you’re doing. Israel knows where you are doing it and Israel will not let you get away with it,” Netanyahu stressed during the speech.
Tehran-Beirut Cargo Flight Sparks Concerns Iran Arming Hezbollah More Easily
Agencies/November 30/18
An Iranian cargo plane allegedly transporting advanced weaponry to Hezbollah was spotted flying directly from Tehran to Beirut on Thursday morning, hours before Israel allegedly conducted airstrikes on pro-Iranian targets in Syria, The Times of Israel reported. Israeli and American security officials have long claimed that Iran has been supplying Lebanon’s Hezbollah with advanced munitions by shipping them through ostensibly civilian airlines, including the one that flew into Lebanon on Thursday: Fars Air Qeshm. However, these cargo planes typically unload their materiel in Syria or stop there en route to Beirut, rather than flying directly into Lebanon, where Hezbollah is based. According to publicly available flight data, Fars Air Qeshm flight number QFZ-9964 left Tehran shortly after 8:00 a.m., flew over Iraq, cut northwest into Syria and then landed in Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport some two hours later.
Later, the Boeing 747 jet flew to Doha in Qatar before returning to Tehran. Without specifically mentioning the flight, the Israeli army’s Arabic-language spokesperson Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee tweeted that Lebanon should stop allowing Iranian planes to bring war materiel into the country, along with a black-and-white satellite photograph of Rafik Hariri International Airport.The Tehran-Beirut flight came hours before Israel reportedly launched a series of airstrikes against Iranian and pro-Iranian sites in Syria on Thursday night. According to media reports and claims by the Syrian military, missiles were fired at targets in and around Damascus, in southern Syrian near the Israeli border and along the Damascus-Beirut highway, which runs to Lebanon. It was not immediately clear if the two incidents were related to one another. Fars Air Qeshm has previously been identified as one of several airlines allegedly acting as transporters of weapons systems for the Iranian military. Some of these have been targeted by US sanctions, though Fars Air Qeshm has not. Last month, the airline reportedly transferred advanced GPS components to Hezbollah that would allow the terrorist group to make previously unguided rockets into precision guided-missiles, thus increasing the threat to Israel.
Iranian airline now ferrying weapons directly to Beirut
Arutz Sheva/Tzvi Lev, 29/11/18
In irregular flight path, Iranian 747 packed with weapons flies directly from Tehran to Beirut. Flight part of militia arms buildup.
In a highly irregular move, a 747 packed with Iranian weapons destined for Hezbollah flew directly from Tehran to Beirut’s Rafic Hariri Airport on Thursday. According to reports, a 747 registered as EP-FAB, took off this morning at 8:02 am from Tehran to Beirut on flight QFZ9964 and landed in Lebanon at 10:19 am. The plane was operated by Fars Air Qeshm, an aviation company owned by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps to ferry weapons to Hezbollah. According to the website Intelli Times, the plane carried equipment to convert Hezbollah’s rocket arsenal to precision missiles capable of hitting sensitive sites within Israel. Iran’s Fars Air Qeshm airline has long been accused of flying arms for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the elite Quds force led by Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleiman. Last year, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on the IRGC and Quds force.
The airline had ceased operations in 2013, citing poor management, but restarted under new management in March 2017. It is said to have two Boeing 747s in its fleet. Among the members of the company’s board are three IRGC representatives, named in the report as Ali Naghi Gol Parsta, Hamid Reza Pahlvani and Gholamreza Qhasemi.
While Iran has invested considerable efforts to transfer advanced missiles to Hezbollah, it commonly flies from the Islamic Republic to Syrian air force bases, making the flight path highly irregular. Western intelligence has already tracked two similar flights within the past few months. In September, Fox News reported that a Boeing 747 that departed from an air force base in Tehran, stopped for a short layover at the international airport in Damascus, Syria, and then continued with a rather “uncharacteristic flight path” to the Beirut international airport, where it landed shortly after 4:00 p.m. local time. According to flight data obtained by Fox News, the route passed over northern Lebanon, not following any commonly used flight path. A regional intelligence source who asked to remain anonymous told the news network, “The Iranians are trying to come up with new ways and routes to smuggle weapons from Iran to its allies in the Middle East, testing and defying the West’s abilities to track them down.”Western intelligence sources said the airplane carried components for manufacturing precise weapons in Iranian factories inside Lebanon. The U.S. and Israel, as well as other western intelligence agencies, have supplied evidence that Iran has operated weapons factories in Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. The Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah has been building factories in the heart of Beirut to convert missiles into highly-accurate precision weapons capable of striking sensitive Israeli sites. Upon deciding to convert its massive 150,000-strong rocket arsenal to missiles with pinpoint accuracy, Hezbollah chose to transfer its sites to the heart of Beirut in order to deter Israeli airstrikes. Israel has repeatedly reiterated that it will not allow Hezbollah to obtain highly accurate missiles that would threaten sensitive Israelis sites and has been escalating its threats vis a vis Lebanon. Hezbollah currently possesses over 150,000 thousand missiles, more than most NATO countries. Senior defense officials have said repeatedly that Hezbollah is now Israel’s major threat and predict that hundreds of Israelis will die in the next war between the two sides.
