Trouble Ahead: Iran Sends Relief Ship To Gaza

This is gonna be trouble and in my estimation, that is exactly why the Iranians are sending a ship to Gaza loaded with supposed "relief supplies." My guess is that Iran is in the mood for a game of WhoBlinksFirst with Israel and wants to see if the Israelis will back down the embargo of Gaza or if they will hold the line against the Iranian vessel. Here's some of the details from the report at KhaleejTimes:

Iran's Red Crescent announced on Wednesday that it is sending a relief ship to the Gaza Strip, in the face of an Israeli blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory.
‘We are sending a consignment of a 1,000 tonnes on a ship to Gaza the beginning of next week,’ Red Crescent secretary general Ahmad Moussavi was quoted as saying on the organisation's website.
‘There is the possibility of our ship being blocked just as the Libyan ship was blocked,’ he added referring to a vessel intercepted by Israel a month ago.
Libya protested to the UN Security Council over Israel's interception of the cargo ship, which had sought to take 3,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Israel said that because Libya does not recognise it, the interception was justified on grounds of national security.
‘Unfortunately so far the Egyptian government had not allowed us to send the relief items to them by air,’ Moussavi said, referring to Gaza's southern neighbour
The official did not disclose the nationality of the ship, but said the cargo will include 500 tonnes of wheat, 200 tonnes of sugar, 200 tonnes of rice, 50 tonnes of cooking oil and 50 tonnes of medical supplies.

I think the Iranians are NOT disclosing the 50 tons of IED's, 20 tons of rockets and 20 tons of small arms included on the ship. : )

But it will be interesting to see what the Israelis do in this situation - their reason for stopping the Libyan ship can certainly be used in this case with the Iranian ship but there's a possibility that the Iranians might transfer this "aid" to another nation's vessel.

So, we might also ask the question...is this Iran's way of provocation of Israel? What if the Iranians will not halt at the blockade and force military action by the Israelis against the ship? Is that the international incident that the Iranians are looking for to test out some of their new missile systems? Would this be the shot over the bow that would unleash new attacks by Hezbollah to the north?

Either way, it's bad news and thus is exactly why Iran is doing it.

Iran to send relief ship to Gaza

TEHERAN - Iran's Red Crescent announced on Wednesday that it is sending a relief ship to the Gaza Strip, in the face of an Israeli blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory.
‘We are sending a consignment of a 1,000 tonnes on a ship to Gaza the beginning of next week,’ Red Crescent secretary general Ahmad Moussavi was quoted as saying on the organisation's website.
‘There is the possibility of our ship being blocked just as the Libyan ship was blocked,’ he added referring to a vessel intercepted by Israel a month ago.
Libya protested to the UN Security Council over Israel's interception of the cargo ship, which had sought to take 3,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Israel said that because Libya does not recognise it, the interception was justified on grounds of national security.
‘Unfortunately so far the Egyptian government had not allowed us to send the relief items to them by air,’ Moussavi said, referring to Gaza's southern neighbour
The official did not disclose the nationality of the ship, but said the cargo will include 500 tonnes of wheat, 200 tonnes of sugar, 200 tonnes of rice, 50 tonnes of cooking oil and 50 tonnes of medical supplies.
The Israeli embargo was imposed after the Islamist Hamas seized power in Gaza in June 2007. The blockade has been tightened since the start of November in retaliation for rocket fire on southern Israel.
Teheran is a staunch supporter of Hamas and has rejected all allegations that it is supplying arms to the movement, saying it only provides moral backing.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly called for Israel to be wiped off the map and even called the Jewish Holocaust a ‘myth.’