The New York Times article continues on an inside page where it features a colour photograph captioned: “July 6, 2007 | QALAWAYEH, LEBANON | A model of a Katyusha rocket launcher and a billboard promoting Hezbollah, the militant and political group. Leaked cables reveal American diplomats’ distress over the flow of arms to Hezbollah.”
In contrast, the Guardian report of the arms trade cables is on Page 6 of today’s edition and is headlined “US used Israel intelligence to block arms from Iran and Syria.” It is accompanied by a colour photo captioned: “Palestinian civilians and medics run for safety as Israeli missiles fall in Beit Lahia in the Cast Lead offensive in January 2009.” And the report – written by Mideast editor Ian Black – differs so markedly from that in the New York Times – both in what it includes and what it omits – that you have to wonder whether the two sets of first-rate journalists were reading the same cables:
The US has worked discreetly to block the supply of Iranian and Syrian weapons to the Palestinian movement Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah, pressuring Arab governments not to co-operate – in many cases where the requests were based on secret intelligence provided by Israel.
State department cables released by WikiLeaks show that Sudan was warned by the US in January 2009 not to allow the delivery of unspecified Iranian arms that were expected to be passed to Hamas in the Gaza Strip around the time of Israel's Cast Lead offensive, in which 1,400 Palestinians were killed.
US diplomats were instructed to express “exceptional concern” to the Khartoum authorities. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Chad were informed of the alleged Iranian plans and warned that any weapons deliveries would be in breach of UN resolutions banning Iranian arms exports.
Sudan's foreign minister told a US official his government's formal response would be that it was not permitting the import of weapons from Iran – only to be told that “a simple regurgitation of Sudan's previous denial would be unfortunate”.
Months later the media reported that in mid-January Israeli planes mounted a long-range bombing attack on an arms convoy in Sudan's Red Sea province. The Sharq al-Awsat newspaper quoted a US official as saying Sudan had been warned in advance about the shipment.
State department documents record that Khartoum then privately accused the US of carrying out two air attacks in eastern Sudan: one in January 2009, with 43 dead and 17 vehicles destroyed, and another on 20 February, with 45 dead and 14 vehicles destroyed. “We assume that the planes that attacked us are your planes,” a senior Sudanese official said. The US embassy in Khartoum then sought clarification from Washington. “Should this potentially explosive story somehow leak to the sensationalistic Sudanese press,” the cable said, “it could very well turn our security situation here from bad to worse.”
