Is the United States creating another Middle East conflict?

An ongoing story with the Iranian ship suspected of carrying weapons for Hamas has taken an interesting twist. Last week US released the ship after determining that the cargo was not intended for Hamas, despite the fact that Iran is in clear violation of a UN resolution preventing Iran from selling weaponry.

The ship is now in the custody of Cyprus and according to the latest story from DEBKAfile and surprisingly from AsiaNews, Cyprus finds itself in a pickle. US who just let go of the ship is pressuring Cyprus to search the ship and take action. One might wonder why the United States is pressuring Cyprus to do a task, that could have been just as easily done last week. Consequently, Iran is threatening Cyprus with economic and possibly military retribution if the ship is not released immediately. Cyprus fears that if the ship is released, then Israel will be forced to intervene and handle this mess in ways Israel sees fit. This could have the potential of escalating already very tense relations between Iran and Israel.

There are several questions that Americans should be asking here though.
  1. The ship was siezed while Bush was still in power, why was it not properly searched? After all, they already determined that the cargo load contained 60 tons of weapons which were undeclared.
  2. Why did Obama release the ship?
  3. Why is this story blacked out in US media? There appears to be orders from the top to make no mention of this in any major news media.
  4. In light of Obama's al-Arabiya interview, is he possibly pawning off the difficult task of searching the ship on Cyprus in an effort to preserve relations?
  5. What could be the consequences of US backing down and Israel taking the brunt of Iran's retribution if the situations escalates.

I for one find the story to be of paramount importance for one sole reason. If the world is truly interested in pursuing a peaceful resolution between Israel and the Palestinian people then Iran's continuing arming of Hamas is a direct affront to this desire. The first order of business should be the complete and total termination of all weapons flowing into Gaza. Obama can claim that he wishes to pursue a two state solution yet at the same time chooses to disregard the primary source of the problem. Lastly, the order to block this story from American eyes is frustrating and disappointing.

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