Iran denies shipping weapons to Syria through Turkey By Ivan Watson and Yesim Comert, CNN January 13, 2012 -- Updated 1459 GMT (2259 HKT) Iran says it is not sending weapons to Syria through Turkey Statement says dialogue "is the way out from the current situation" in Syria Turkey stopped four trucks suspected of carrying military cargo Istanbul (CNN) -- Iran's embassy in Turkey has issued a formal statement denying reports Tehran was shipping weapons through Turkey to Syria. "We deny such claims and we would like to state that the Islamic Republic of Iran sees people's demands to be paid attention to as a way of providing domestic security and stability and believes that dialogue between the Syrian government and the opposition is the way out from the current situation," the Iranian embassy announced in a written statement obtained Friday by CNN. The statement came after Turkish officials said they stopped four trucks that arrived from Iran at the Turkish border with Syria because they were suspected of carrying military cargo. The spokesman for Turkey's Foreign Ministry told CNN customs officials were currently investigating the trucks. "They suspected something," said ministry spokesman Selcuk Unal. Unal said he did not have further information about what was contained in the trucks. Last November, the Turkish government announced it would block all weapons sales and shipments across Turkish land, sea and airspace to Syria. The measures were part of a round of sanctions against what Turkey's foreign minister called the Syrian government's "collective punishment methods, besieging cities, bombing mosques, using excessive violence against peaceful demonstrators and killing tens of people every day." According to the United Nations, more than 5,000 people have been killed in Syria, since the Damascus government launched a bloody crackdown against widespread anti-regime protests 10 months ago. Though Turkey announced the weapons ban in November 2011, months before then Ankara had already established a pattern of stopping weapons shipments between Iran and Syria. Tehran and Damascus are close regional allies. In March 2011, the Turkish Foreign Ministry announced authorities forced two Iranian cargo planes flying over Turkey to Syria to land at Turkish airports. "Goods prohibited within the scope of United Nations sanctions imposed on Iran were found and seized," the Foreign Ministry announced on March 22, 2011. As suspicion swirled this week around the Iranian cargo trucks bound for Iran, another controversy erupted about a Russian-owned cargo ship that traveled via Cyprus to Syria. On Tuesday, Cyprus announced that customs authorities briefly detained and searched the cargo ship "Chariot," after bad weather forced it to seek refuge near the Greek Cypriot port of Limassol . According to a statement from the Cypriot Ministry of Foreign Affairs, "It was concluded that the ship carried dangerous cargo with destination to Syria and Turkey." "The owners of the aforementioned ship decided to change the destination of the cargo," the Foreign Ministry stated. The ship was eventually allowed to depart after the Cypriot government concluded no European Union regulations "relevant to the restrictions concerning the situation in Syria" were being violated. The spokesman for Turkey's Foreign Ministry denied Cyprus' claim that the "Chariot" was destined for Turkey. Spokesman Unal went on to announce that "the Turkish navy confirmed to us that as of 10:50 Thursday morning, the ship in question which was allegedly carrying 60 tons of ammunition docked in the Syrian port of Latakiya." Russia, which maintains a navy base in the Syrian port of Tartus, is also a major supplier of weapons to the Syrian government.