A SHIP now being held in Cyprus presents a test of the Obama administration and of the West’s efforts to stop Iran’s export of arms – indeed, a test of the entire international anti-proliferation apparatus.
Monchegorsk, a Russian-owned cargo ship traveling under a Cypriot flag, is moored in Limassol, Cyprus. Its cargo includes substantial military materiel (exactly what remains a mystery), loaded in Iran.
Cyprus has asked the Security Council for guidance: Should it confiscate the cargo, and expose it to show the danger Iran poses to the whole region? Should it send it back to Iran, or let it go on its way?
The ship left Iran late last month on its way to Latakia, Syria. Acting on intelligence that its cargo was suspicious, the US Navy stopped it in the Red Sea. Americans boarded the ship, conducted a search, found arms, took photos and let it go.
The content of some 40 containers clearly violated an international ban on Iran’s export of military assets, but the US Navy couldn’t legally confiscate them. We “did as much as we could do legally,” said the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen. “We were not authorized to seize the weapons or do anything like that.”
Instead, after a short stop in Egypt, the ship went to Limassol. Because the craft is Cypriot-flagged, officials there have the ultimate authority over it. But Cyprus declines to be the arbiter in a matter so “sensitive,” as its president, Demetris Christofias, repeatedly defined it.
Christofias sent a letter to the Security Council, asking whether the arms his men found on the ship violate international law, and begging for “guidance.”
The materiel may be destined to bolster Syria’s military capabilities, or for transfer to Hezbollah in Lebanon or Hamas in Gaza. Either way, such exports are a “clear violation” of at least three Security Council resolutions that forbid the export of arms from Iran, a European diplomat told me yesterday after reading the Cypriot letter.
The materiel may not be directly tied to Iran’s nuclear or long-range-missile programs. But the mini-crisis nonetheless remains a test of the international community’s anti-proliferation willpower.
Cyprus, a small and divided island-state, won’t take the lead to curb Iran’s arming of its unsavory regional friends. It is our job, and we need to assure that no legal limitations stop US forces guys from carrying it.
In an ideal world the Security Council would add enforcement teeth to its resolutions on Iran. But countries like Russia will have to be brought on board. Is Moscow willing to deliver on its reported desire to extend President Obama some good will?
But, then, what does Obama want?
Dennis Ross, reportedly slated to become Obama’s Iran point man, favors a coordinated world action to increase pressure on the mullahs. The arms ship gives our new UN ambassador, Susan Rice, an opportunity to start pressuring her UN counterparts to tighten the noose on Iran’s proliferation regime.
The Security Council is preparing a response to be sent to Cyprus as early as today. It will ask that the weapons remain secure in Cyprus or in another neutral country. But that isn’t enough. Rice must seize on this incident and quickly push for a new resolution allowing US and other forces to seize future illicit shipments at sea.
But will Rice do it? She has said she hopes for dialogue with Iran. Yet Iran has so far snubbed Obama’s call for the mullahs to “unclench their fist” and talk to him.
In fact, enforcing the UN ban on Iranian weapons exports will annoy the mullahs – but it might also get their attention. This might actually bring them to the table (albeit with fists still clenched).
Rice would have her chance for dialogue – but Iran’s arms exports might also be cut off, as well.
Benny Avni is a UN-based columnist.beavni@gmail.com