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The Francop Affair was a high seas incident on November 4, 2009 in which the Israeli Navy seized the MV ''Francop'' cargo ship in the eastern Mediterranean Sea and its cargo of hundreds of tons of weapons allegedly bound from Iran to Hezbollah. The incident is also known by its military operation name, Operation Four Species. ==Operation== Israeli commanders had received intelligence reports that the ship was carrying weapons originating from Iran, which were to be transferred to Hezbollah.〔 The ship was about off the coast of Israel, near Cyprus, when it was stopped. On November 4, 2009, the ship was radioed by an Israeli Navy missile boat, which ordered it to halt and prepare for inspection. Shayetet 13 naval commandos then boarded the ship without resistance. The navy said that the crew was not aware of the purported smuggling and cooperated with the commandos.〔 The commandos broke open the shipping containers and discovered crates of weapons and munitions hidden between sacks of polyethylene stacked along the openings and sides.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=IDF Navy commandoes board the Francop )〕 A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the ship was carrying "dozens of shipping containers, carrying numerous weapons, disguised as civilian cargo among hundreds of other containers on board". After boarding, the Israeli navy directed the ship to the Israeli port of Ashdod where a thorough inspection was held.〔 According to the IDF, the ship picked up the cargo in Damietta, Egypt; the cargo arrived in Egypt on a ship that sailed from Bandar Abbas, Iran on October 25. The ship was then set to sail to Limassol, Cyprus and then Latakia, Syria.〔 The IDF suspects that the cargo was intended for Hezbollah, which fought Israel in the 2006 Lebanon War. Following the war, United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 forbade the shipments of arms to Hezbollah. In 2010, the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1929 authorized states to seize items, including arms, that Iran is forbidden from exporting. An Israeli naval chief said that the amount of weapons found is ten times more than that found during Operation Noah's Ark. The arms shipment weighed 320 tons and were held in containers marked with Iranian shipping codes. The seized weaponry consisted of 9,000 mortar shells, 2,125 107-mm Katyusha rockets, 685 rocket fuses, 690 122-mm rockets, 21,100 F-1 fragmentation hand grenades, and 566,220 AK-47 rounds.〔〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Slide Show of Weaponry Found on The 'Francop' )〕 The Israeli military said that the shipment was equivalent to about ten percent of Hezbollah's stocks.〔 The arms shipment was the largest ever seized by Israel.〔 On November 5, 2009, ambassadors and diplomats from 44 countries, military attaches from 27 armies in the world, and the international media were invited by the IDF and the Foreign Ministry to show them the weapons and munitions seized from the ''Francop'' ship.〔 〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Francop Affair」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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