Arctic Sea located 16 nautical miles off Las Palmas

A Maltese team composed of police officers and officials from the Malta Maritime Authority boarded the Arctic Sea Sep. 11 to carry out a maritime safety investigation into the ship in parallel with a law enforcement one, the MMA said.

The MMA said that an agreement was reached between the Russian and Maltese authorities for a Maltese team to join the Russian investigative team who boarded the Arctic Sea on Sep 07.

The ship is currently under the control of the Russian authorities and is located 16 nautical miles off Las Palmas.

The Maltese flagged ship is owned by a Finnish company whose inspectors were yesterday stopped by Russian soldiers from boarding the ship.

Three Russian Il-76 transport plans (each capable of carrying 44 tons of cargo) were used to bring in the crew and suspected hijackers (or two or eight?).

Israel's deputy prime minister confirmed on Saturday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had visited Russia but declined to elaborate on the affair, which has triggered media accusations of official disinformation.

"He was in Russia. It created some controversy about the way it was published in Israel," Dan Meridor told Reuters in Geneva on the sidelines of a conference about global issues hosted by Britain's International Institute for Strategic Studies.

"The content was not discussed in public. Some things are better discussed (privately)," added Meridor, who is also Minister of Intelligence and Atomic Energy.

Arctic Sea: shipment of missiles aborted

Israeli officials have been forced to admit that Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, made a secret trip to Moscow. Reports suggested that S-300 surface-to-air missiles were being shipped on the Arctic Sea but shipment had been aborted after it came to the attention of Mossad, the Israeli secret service. Russia is said to have had a commitment to Israel that would not sell any weapons to Israel’s enemies that could shift the regional balance of power.

Arctic Sea: piracy story was a cover

A senior figure close to Israeli intelligence told the BBC that the piracy story was a cover and that Israel told Moscow it was giving officials time to stop the shipment before making the matter public.
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, added that he had no information about any visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secretly to Moscow.

Arctic Sea: Netanyahu to Moscow? meets Putin ?

According to the reports, Netanyahu and Putin discussed arms deals between Russia and Iran and the kidnapping of the "Arctic Sea" vessel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's mysterious 'disappearance' for about 10 hours on Sep. 07 could be explained with a secret visit to Russia. The purpose of the quick trip was to discuss the sale of weapons to Iran with Russian officials. In particular, they discussed the sale of S-300 anti-missile batteries that the ayatollah's regime intends to deploy to protect its nuclear sites, in order to protect them from possible Israeli attacks to destroy the Islamic Republic's future possibility of acquiring nuclear warheads. Netanyahu, accompanied by his national security adviser and a military aide, boarded a chartered plane in a secluded area of Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion airport on Monday and flew to Russia, returning late at night. Spokesmen for Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the two leaders did not meet Netanyahu on Monday, but did not explicitly deny that the visit took place.