21 August 2010
BEIRUT: Transport and Public Works Minister Ghazi Aridi said Friday that the government would not respond to a call from Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak to prevent a Gaza-bound aid ship from sailing.
The organizers of the Mariam, a Lebanese ship carrying aid and women activists hoping to break Israel’s Gaza blockade, have announced that the vessel would sail on Sunday from Lebanon, despite warnings that they will not be allowed to make it past Cyprus.
The vessel has received permission from the Transport and Public Works Ministry to sail to any country on its way to Gaza, as it cannot sail directly to Gaza.
Ehud Barak was quoted on Friday by Israeli newspaper Haaretz as saying that the Mariam intended to aid terror organizations that aimed to “kill Israeli civilians.” “The ship that is preparing to sail from Lebanon has nothing to do with humanitarianism.” He urged the Lebanese government to prevent the ship from leaving.
“If the ship insists on arriving, in opposition to the current blockade, Israel will be forced to stop it and bring it to the port of Ashdod,” he added.
But later on Friday, Aridi told Al-Jadid television station that the vessel would not head toward Cyprus because the Cypriot authorities did not grant it permission. The minister said the issue had become more complicated, stressing that the permission granted to the Mariam to sail to any port with which Lebanese authorities dealt continued to be valid.
Copyright The Daily Star 2010.
