Turkey has informed a U.N. Security Council panel that it seized a cache of weapons Iran was attempting to export in breach of a U.N. arms embargo, Reuters reported with reference to a document obtained by the agency on Thursday.
The plane was bound for Aleppo, Syria, and was given permission to pass through Turkish airspace provided it made a “technical stop” at Diyarbakir airport, the report said.
It said a search of the Iranian “YasAir Cargo Airlines” Ilyushin-76 revealed a number of “prohibited military items” – 60 Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifles, 14 BKC/Bixi machine guns, nearly 8,000 rounds of BKC/AK-47 ammunition, 560 60-mm mortar shells, and 1,288 120-mm mortar shells.
“The above-mentioned items were seized and have been stored in a military warehouse in Diyarbakir,” said the report, which was sent to the Iran sanctions committee on March 29.
