Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Russia Denies Ship’s Weapons Were Bound for Iran

Russia denied that a cargo ship reportedly seized by pirates was carrying weapons bound for Iran.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made the denial Tuesday after an article printed over the weekend by the Sunday Times of London, which reported that the ship called the Arctic Sea was carrying Russian-made S-300 anti-aircraft missiles. Officially, the ship was carrying $1.7 million worth of lumber.

The ship reportedly was hijacked near Sweden on July 24 and was recovered by the Russian Navy in mid-August.

The Times report cited Russian and Israeli sources as saying the Mossad, acting with the cooperation of the Russian government, set up the hijacking to stop Iran from receiving the weapons without embarrassing Russia.

Russia had agreed to sell the sophisticated missiles to Iran several years ago, but Israeli President Shimon Peres announced Aug. 18, the day after the ship had been recovered, that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had agreed to review the sale.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.