At any given time, Israel's defense establishment is monitoring Iranian arms smuggling and terror-financing networks, a security source revealed on Thursday, a day after the Israel Navy intercepted an Iranian attempt to smuggle powerful rockets to the Gaza Strip on a commercial ship off the coast of Sudan.
Currently, IDF Military Intelligence is managing investigations "no less significant" than the Iranian attempt to bring Syrian-made M-302 rockets to Gaza, the source added, describing the covert investigations as part of a far wider "war between wars." Not a week passes by without Israel blocking or thwarting an Iranian attempt to transmit arms to terrorist entities threatening Israeli national security.
All of Israel's intelligence agencies are involved in this effort, the source stated, including Military Intelligence's various units, Mossad, and the Shin Be. "We're working together, with a lot of transparency," he added.
There are a variety of ways to disrupt illicit Iranian arms shipments, the source said. A drone can be used for the job he added. At the center of the global Iranian arms network is the Quds Force, an elite unit of the Iranian Republican Guards Corps tasked with "exporting the Islamic Revolution," and comprising thousands of operatives. Headed by Qassem Suleimani, described by the source as a "skilled mastermind," the organization is working daily to arm Israel's enemies.
"We are stopping them in many ways," the source said. Counteractions against the Quds Force can take the form of sharing the name of a bank used for financing the movement of arms with other countries, or exposing the name of a company that provides components for missiles.
After Military Intelligence researchers focus in on an Iranian network, he said.
In the case of the M-302 rockets intercepted on Wednesday, Military Intelligence noticed suspicious movements of rockets in Syria eastwards towards Iran, which set in motion an investigation many months ago.
"It's getting harder and harder for the Iranians to get weapons in through the southern route, " the source said, referring to paths used to bring rockets to the Gaza Strip. "In the Northern sector, there is some smuggling, but part of this has been stopped," he said referring to Hezbollah's armament program in Lebanon.
The source said that he could not rule out that the Iranians would "hold in-depth investigations. It's not the first time this s been done to them," he added. "This will stop their activities, for several months. Until you find the source of the leak, you have no confidence that the next shipment won't share the same fate," the source said. Eventually, Iran will try again, he added.
The Israel Navy has spent months preparing for Wednesday's interception.
The crew of the Klos-C ship were shocked when the navy showed it the rockets in the ship's hull, Navy sources said.
"The captain felt cheated, he didn't know he was part of a conspiracy, an Iranian operation," one source said.
The captain, who is Turkish, provided a full statement to Navy personnel on how his ship entered the Iranian port of Bander Abbas, loaded crates, and moved on to the Iraqi port of Umm El-Qasr, where cement sacs were loaded on to the vessel. The ship's next destination was meant to be Port Sudan, where the Quds Force had planned to pick up the rockets and move them on land via Egypt into Gaza, through smuggling tunnels.
The Iranian arms network reaches far beyond Gaza and Lebanon, and includes Shi'ite militias and pro-Iranian terror groups across the Middle East. Syria, Iraq, Bahrain, Yemen, Sudan, Libya, the far east, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Latin America are all affected, according to Israeli intelligence assessments.
"Iran is maintaining major [arms transit] efforts in our area alone, for the purpose of creating Iranian hegemony in the region, and ensure that Sunni dominance remains grounded," the source said.
Earlier on Wednesday, Military Intelligence chief Maj.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi said his agency had "no doubt" that Iran was behind the rockets shipment. "Iran's Republican Guards Corps and Quds Force are working to destabalize the region," he said. "Iran violates UN Security Council Resolution 1747, which bans it from trading in or moving weapons," Kochavi added.