JERUSALEM - Israel's prime minister charged Thursday that Iran's goal was to kill as many civilians as possible by giving Hezbollah what the military said were enough weapons to extend any war against Israel for one month.
Benjamin Netanyahu said the shipment of hundreds of tons of weapons on a seized ship Israel contends was bound for the Lebanese guerrilla group was a war crime that should be investigated by the U.N. Security Council. The Iran-backed Hezbollah denied that the arms were bound for them.
"Their goal was ... to kill as many civilians as possible," Netanyahu said of the Iranians.
Israeli naval commandos intercepted the ship Wednesday in waters off Cyprus and discovered hundreds of crates of rockets, missiles, mortars, anti-tank weapons and munitions. Israel claims the weapons came from Iran and were headed for Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon but have not yet provided any proof.
Israeli officials hoped the capture of the ship would help buttress the Jewish state as it fights war crimes allegations at the United Nations on Thursday and seeks crippling global sanctions against Iran.
"This is a war crime that the General Assembly that is meeting today should investigate and discuss. It is a war crime that the U.N. Security Council should have a special meeting over," Netanyahu told reporters in Tel Aviv.
"It explicitly violates U.N. Security Council decisions," Netanyahu added. "It is a war crime that we know the Iranian regime intended for the Hezbollah to carry out after they already fired thousands of rockets at our communities. This is what the international community should focus on especially today."
But in the Muslim world, officials worried that Israel might use the seizure to divert attention from urgent regional issues.
State-run Iran TV said in a commentary that the "Israeli propaganda" was aimed at diverting attention from allegations of Israeli war crimes during last winter's war in the Gaza Strip. A Syrian Foreign Ministry official expressed the same view.
Iran's English-language Press TV said Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki dismissed the allegations on the cargo's destination and route.
Palestinians worried that Israel would pounce on an excuse to avoid peacemaking.
"Since the Israeli leadership and society are not ready for peace, they are using any pretext to shun peace obligations, and one is the issue of the Iranian shipment," said Ghassan Khatib, a spokesman for the West Bank-based Palestinian government.
Hezbollah on Thursday denied the weapons were for them. There was no comment from Lebanese officials.
"Hezbollah categorically denies it has any connection with the weapons which the Zionist enemy claims it seized aboard the Francop ship," Hezbollah said in a statement faxed to The Associated Press in Beirut.
The arms shipment underscored the dangerous tensions between Israel and the Islamic Republic. Israel considers Iran a strategic threat because of its nuclear program and long-range missile development, and says Tehran is lying when it denies it is building atomic arms.
Iran has never acknowledged giving weapons to Hezbollah, which fought a monthlong war with Israel in 2006. Proof of large-scale Iranian weapons shipments to its proxy forces on Israel's borders could reinforce Israeli demands for tough action -- possibly even a pre-emptive strike -- against Iran's nuclear facilities.
Israeli defence officials said the weapons haul consisted of arms already in Hezbollah's possession, and would have given the Lebanese guerrilla group the ability to fight a full month longer in the event of a clash with Israel on the scale of the 2006 war.
The defence officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the military has yet to formally comment on the potential value of the shipment's contents to militants.
The presence of Iranian proxies in the Mideast, combined with worries over Tehran's nuclear program and arsenal of long-range missiles, have made Iran the Jewish state's most formidable foe.
Neutralizing Iran's bomb-making ability remains Netanyahu's top priority -- and Israel has not ruled out a military strike against Tehran's nuclear facilities.
