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UN probes Turkey’s transfer of Israel equipment to Iran

May 17, 2018 at 3:47 pm

UN meeting in session [Apaimages]

The United Nations is launching an investigation into a case of Turkey selling Israeli-made electronic equipment to Iran, allegedly in breach of both international and Israeli law.

The electronic capacitors were discovered and seized in a shipment at the United Arab Emirates in July 2017, and found to be en route from Turkey to Iran. The capacitors were produced by Celem Power Capacitors; an Israeli company based in Jerusalem, and were originally sold to a Turkish company.

Iran has no diplomatic or trade relations with Israel.

“We don’t sell to enemy countries,” sources at Celem Power Capacitors insisted, “if the shipment did in fact reach Iran, the Turkish purchaser defrauded us.”

The capacitors are components that can enable Iran to continue the building of nuclear weapons.

The UN Secretariat, tasked with investigating possible violations of resolutions made by the Security Council, has asked Israel to also look into the matter and provide “pertinent information on the matter forthwith” that could help the investigation.

Read: A new crisis in Turkey-Israel relations

If Turkey is found to have sold on the capacitors to Iran, it would have done so in violation of UN Security Council sanctions on Tehran, as well as possibly assisting an officially recognised enemy of Israel.

The investigation of the incident comes amid an already-tense diplomatic crisis between Turkey and Israel, who have both expelled each other’s ambassadors after Israel shot on unarmed Palestinian protesters on Monday at the border with Gaza. Over 60 protesters were killed and over 2,700 wounded as a result of the indiscriminate use of force by the Israeli military.