Israeli foreign minister says arms-laden NKorean plane seized in Bangkok was meant for Hamas

Israel FM: Arms-laden NKorean plane for Hamas

TOKYO — Israel’s foreign minister claimed Wednesday that an aircraft loaded with North Korean weapons seized in Bangkok in December was bound for militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, visiting Japan, said North Korea, Syria and Iran are cooperating as a new “axis of evil” and pose the biggest threat to world security because they are building and spreading weapons of mass destruction.

“We saw this kind of cooperation only two or maybe three months ago with the North Korean plane in Bangkok with huge numbers of different weapons with the intention to smuggle these weapons to Hamas and Hezbollah,” Lieberman told reporters in Tokyo.

On Dec. 12, Thai authorities seized a plane with 35 tons of weapons on board from the North Korean capital of Pyongyang when it landed in Bangkok.

Flight documents indicated the plane’s destination was Iran, but officials there denied they were importing weapons. North Korea is barred under U.N. sanctions from exporting weapons.

Analysts have said that while the aircraft may have been heading for Iran, the weapons could actually have been earmarked for radical Middle Eastern groups like Hamas and Hezbollah which Iran has bankrolled and supplied with weapons in the past.

Lieberman did not elaborate on his claims that the weapons were destined for those two groups.

He said that Iran should be dealt tough sanctions by the U.N. Security Council.

“Iran is not Israel’s problem. It is the biggest threat to the world,” he said. “We think the best way (to deal with it) is tough sanctions from the Security Council framework.”