Name: Francop. Expedient: Iran. Destination: Hezbollah, through Syria.  Quantity: thousands of medium-range 107- and 122-millimeter rockets, armor-piercing artillery, hand grenades and ammunition for Kalashnikov rifles.
 
On Wednesday morning Israeli Defense Forces seized a ship carrying 500 tons of weapons on its way to Cyprus. Apparently, they were alerted to the ship by Unites States, which also asked them not to bomb it. The IDF then escorted the ship to Ashdod harbor in Israel and a couple of hours later revealed its contents to the Israeli and international media.
 
Diplomatic sources are now wondering if this is the pretext that will launch the next war on Lebanon.
 
The move came a day after UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon announced conclusions of the 11th report on implementing UNSCR 1701, which said that Hezbollah’s continuing to arm is worrying, although there is no proof of arms smuggling to Lebanon.
 
A few hours later, however, the Israelis provided all the proof they deemed necessary. They displayed the missiles from the Francop in the harbor, organized a media tour, allowed all international press agencies to photograph them and, for good measure, the IDF released a movie of the capture for the entire world to see.

Who’s going to listen to Hezbollah?
 
Very few people, now. It took a day for Hezbollah to release a statement denying “any link to the weapons that the Zionist enemy claims it removed from the vessel Francop.”
 
In terms of making the case for war, it would seem the Jewish state has gained the upper hand over the Party of God in recent months, with the discovery of an assassination plot against the head of the IDF,  several rocket attacks from Lebanon, the explosions of arms storage facilities, official complaints filed to the United Nations. Hezbollah has fought back with a few press releases.
 
After Wednesday’s incident, Israel's Foreign Ministry issued a document to Israeli embassies and consulates around the world, instructing employees to utilize Israel's seizure of the ship to increase international pressure on Iran. Israeli diplomats were instructed to stress Iran's violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions forbidding it from supplying weapons to Syria or Hezbollah.

Talk of war
 
Diplomatic sources in Lebanon say they are already discussing the possibility of a new conflict in South Lebanon, and reports in the media have said that the United States prevented IDF from actually bombing the ship. According to Arabic press reports, in a trilateral meeting between the United States, Israel and France, Israeli officials stated that hitting Hezbollah would be easier than attacking Iran directly and that the best time to launch such an offensive would be spring 2010.
 
“The situation in South Lebanon is not at all finished and is more and more tense. There is going to be new fighting soon. Israel has been waiting at any moment for Hezbollah to be asked by Iran to do something: kidnap two soldiers or shoot down a plane,” a diplomat close to UNIFIL told NOW.
 
The UN’s 30-year-old peacekeeping operation in South Lebanon is going through a crisis too, as rising tensions between Hezbollah, Iran, Syria and Israel are causing a diplomatic spat between Italy and Spain. UNIFIL is currently led by the Italian contingent, though General Claudio Graziano’s mandate will expire in February 2010. The Spanish contingent is scheduled to lead UNIFIL next, but the Israeli government has lobbied the Italians to stay on at UNIFIL’s helm. Israel perceives Spain as being closer and more friendly to Hezbollah than Italy. Amid the diplomatic squabbling, more countries announced they are reducing their troop numbers  in Lebanon. Italy recently said it was withdrawing half of its troops at the beginning of 2010. Germany is also set to gradually withdraw its fleet. 
 
“UNIFIL cannot stop the armament of Hezbollah. It is a proven thing. It is a peacekeeping operation. It cannot interfere in the conflict. I think that UN will stay out of the conflict once it breaks out and will stick to the humanitarian job,” the diplomat told NOW.