Arms ship captain says he was working for Palestinian Authority
JERUSALEM (CNN) --The captain of an arms ship intercepted by Israel told reporters that he worked for the Palestinian Authority and took his orders from a man he identified as Adel Awadala, a Palestinian Authority official in Greece.
Speaking with four news organizations who were allowed to interview him in prison, the captain, Omar Akawi, said Monday he knew his ship was carrying arms and thought the mission would fail.
Akawi said the plan involved picking up arms from a boat off the coast of Iran, traveling through the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and the Suez Canal and anchoring off Alexandria, Egypt.
The boat was then to unload its cargo onto a smaller vessel that would drop the arms in floating packages off the Gaza coast.
Akawi said he picked up the cargo as instructed but was intercepted 500 kilometers south of the Israeli port of Eilat last Thursday.
The Israeli government has said it had "iron-clad" evidence the ship, carrying 50 tons of weapons, was linked to the Palestinian Authority. Israeli officials said the ship was carrying Katyusha rockets, rifles, mortar shells, mines and a variety of anti-tank missiles. Over the weekend, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon accused Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat of ordering the mission.
"By his own behavior, Arafat has made himself irrelevant and a bitter enemy of Israel," Sharon said. "Arafat has taken another step by linking himself with the center of world terror -- Iran. (Arafat) is behaving like an enemy in every way. Anyone who is preparing these sorts of destructive weapons understands that their sole intention was to put Israel in an insufferable position."
The Palestinian Authority had no immediate comment, but earlier denied any connection with the vessel, saying Israel is trying to use the incident to thwart efforts by U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni to move forward on a cease-fire.
U.S. envoy to return to region in a week
The revelation from the ship captain came a day after Zinni headed home after four days of intensive talks with Israelis and Palestinians aimed at negotiating a cease-fire.
A U.S. State Department statement said that "while serious challenges remain, there are real opportunities for progress." Zinni is due back in the Middle East in a little over a week.
Zinni broke off his first Mideast mission in early December after a series of suicide bombing attacks on Israeli civilians by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the assassination of an Israeli Cabinet minister.
Amid increasing pressure from Israel, Europe and the United States, Arafat then called for a halt to attacks in a televised address on December 16. Afterward, Hamas said it would suspend strikes inside Israel. Islamic Jihad said it would do nothing to disrupt Palestinian unity, believed to be a signal its attacks would stop.
Hamas runs mosques, schools and clinics for Palestinians but has a military wing that conducts military and terror strikes. Palestinian Islamic Jihad is a militant group dedicated to the creation of an Islamic Palestinian state and the destruction of Israel.
Since Arafat's call for a halt, violent incidents have dropped by about 50 percent, Israeli officials have said.
Captain doubts Palestinian Authority leaders knew of mission
The ship's captain, Akawi, is being held in a prison in Ashkelon. He was interviewed by Israeli television Channels One and Two. Later he spoke with the Reuters Television and the Fox network.
Akawi said he believed his mission would fail because he thought he would be caught in the Persian Gulf by American forces or in the Suez Canal by Egyptian forces.
He said he told Awadala, whom he referred to as Adel, of his concerns but Awadala told him to "leave it for God" and go ahead with the mission.
"I'm a soldier. I have to obey orders," he said, explaining why he went ahead.
Akawi said he left Aden, Yemen, and traveled to what he described as a "fixed point" near the coast of Iran.
Akawi said his ship, the Karine-A, was met there by a vessel "without any name, without anything. They gave me these things. They were boxes, only closed boxes. I took it as a cargo, but I know that inside there is some weapons."
Akawi added, "There was one guy from Hezbollah there" referring to the Lebanese guerrilla group. He said the man spoke with a Syrian or Lebanese accent.
During the interviews, Akawi identified himself as an employee of the Palestinian Navy and the Palestinian Transportation Ministry.
"I'm an officer in the Palestinian Authority. I'm taking my salary and I'm an employee of the Palestinian Authority," said Akawi. "My boss is Fatki Razzi, he's a deputy commander of the Palestinian Navy. His boss is Jamal Rai. He's the leader of the navy."
Asked if he thought the leaders of the Palestinian Authority knew of his mission, Akawi said he did not think they knew. He said Awadala may have told them but added, "from my side, I don't think that they know."
Again, I'm sorry I was like that.
