Suez Canal Authority said early on Monday that inspectors did not find arms in a Tanzanian-flagged ship carrying an Iranian cargo destined for Syria. The authority had intercepted the ship as it crossed the canal following reports that the Tanzanian flag carrier had left an Iranian port on Saturday transporting weapons for the Syrian regime.
Suez Canal Authority Chairman Mohab Mamish was quoted by Turkey's Anadolu news agency as saying that the ship was carrying 7,479 tons of Urea chemical and was allowed passage to the Mediterranean Sea.
| Urea is a useful basic chemical. You can use it to make fertilizer. Or explosives... |
Syrian opposition military sources had said the ship was carrying 8,500 tons of weapons and ground missiles from Iran to be given to the Syrian regime.
"It is scheduled to make a 'fuel stop' at a Syrian port where it will unload its cargo," one opposition source told Al Arabiya on Saturday.
| So were the inspectors blind? Or gagged? |
There have been various media reports that the Islamic republic has been militarily helping the regime of Bashar al-Assad, which-according to the U.N.-has killed more than 70,000 people in the two years since the uprising began. |