Iran is using European ports to provide cover for shipments of weapons to Hezbollah, The Telegraph can reveal.

The Lebanese terror group has received missiles and bombs via ports in Belgium, Spain and Italy, sources said.

Hezbollah and Israel are close to all-out war amid daily exchanges of cross-border fire, causing border regions to be evacuated.

Iran has switched to shipping weapons by sea after Israel’s air force began to target consignments coming in by land into northern Syria via Iraq, the source said.

Weapons and other goods are now shipped via ports in Antwerp, Valencia and Ravenna, The Telegraph has been told.

They arrive at the Syrian port of Latakia, before moving south to Lebanon.

“Using Europe helps to hide the nature and the source of the shipments, switching paperwork and containers… to clean the shipments,” a senior intelligence source in Israel said.

“Europe has huge ports so Iran is using that as a camouflage. It’s very easy to do manipulations in those big ports where things have to get moved quickly, rather than a small port where there will be more scrutiny.

“It’s like a cat and mouse between us and the Iranians. They’re trying to smuggle and we’re trying to stop it. It’s been at least three years like this.”

Israeli attacks prompt a change in tactics

Ronen Solomon, an independent intelligence analyst based in Israel, said that Iran was also shipping weapons directly to Syria. The use of separate routes via Europe was to “legitimise” their own cargo and “distract attention” from those direct shipments.

The port of Latakia was targeted by air strikes in 2021, though these were not claimed by Israel, which rarely confirms operations in Syrian territory.

“The reason we see Iran’s efforts to transfer through the sea in the last month is because of Israeli attacks on air and land infrastructure in Syria to Lebanon, so we are seeing an increase in container shipments,” Mr Solomon said.

Mr Solomon, who works with intelligence officials in Israel, said the Iranian corridor to Syria and Lebanon by land, air, and sea “operates continuously”.

The flow of weapons comes amidst the worst tensions between Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Israel since the second Lebanon war.

Hezbollah launched 100 rockets at the Golan Heights in a single day this week. Around 60,000 Israeli civilians have been evacuated from the northern border regions, and Israel’s leaders have regularly warned they are prepared for a ground war against Hezbollah.

Mr Solomon added that the weapons will also reach Hamas in Lebanon and the routes, which include Egypt and Libya, are used to channel weapons to Hamas in Gaza.

“Switching ships and containers via Europe, especially under the cover of companies based in countries such as Romania, allows Iran to stay further under the radar,” he said.

“Libya has long been known to be a route for weapons to travel to Hamas via Rafah in Egypt, and this could still be the case with the latest shipments, as Egypt’s checks are not thorough the way they are done [at] Israel’s borders.”

Since the beginning of the Gaza war in October, five Iranian ships – Daisy, Kashan, Shiba, Arezoo and Azargoun – have unloaded goods in Syria, starting their journey in Bandar Abbas in Iran, according to intelligence handed to Solomon.

Co-ordinated by Iran’s Quds Force Unit 190, the weapon transfers are then managed by Hezbollah’s Unit 4400, which is responsible for arms shipments.

“Some ships like Daisy are also docked next to the Iranian spy ship Behshad which sits in the Red Sea and receives regular supplies unloaded in Egyptian and Libyan ports,” Mr Solomon added. 

The US has been urged to strike the Behshad, which has also been co-ordinating the Houthi attacks on global shipping.