Last update - 00:00 15/10/2007
Egypt denies indifference toward arms smuggling into Gaza Strip
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service
Egypt denies Public Security Minister Avi Dichter's claims that it could do more to prevent arms smuggling into Gaza, Israel Radio reports.
Dichter told the international Quartet's Middle East envoy Tony Blair Friday that Egypt could halt the flow of weapons from the Sinai Peninsula into the Gaza Strip in a single day. An Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman said Dichter's accusations are a "common manipulation."
Dichter and Blair met to discuss a strongly worded message Israel sent to the United States complaining that the weapons smuggling and entry of militants from Egypt into the Gaza Strip was threatening the scheduled Annapolis regional peace conference.
"We must fight the weapons smuggling from Sinai," Dichter told Blair during their meeting. "Egypt could stop the weapons smuggling within one day if it only wanted to."
Senior Israeli political figures said Thursday that in talks with their American counterparts, they stressed that the porous border in Sinai "is becoming a strategic problem" and asked them to raise the issue with the Egyptians.
"The smuggling of weapons and terrorist experts from Sinai to the Gaza Strip through the Philadelphi Route poses a real threat to the holding of the Annapolis conference," the message read.
The Israelis also expressed their frustration about Egyptian behavior vis-a-vis Hamas, both in terms of the ease of smuggling and also politically, in view of Cairo's calls for Fatah and Hamas to renew negotiations for a unity government.
"Egypt is working against everything we are all trying to achieve," senior Israeli officials told the Americans. "We are organizing a summit to further the diplomatic process under the banner 'strengthening Abu Mazen' [Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas], and they are strengthening Hamas."
Israeli officials told the Americans that "the smuggling is taking place to undermine the general effort to restart the diplomatic process."
The Egyptian spokesman said that it is not a coincidence that Israel's criticism comes shortly before the American Congress convenes to approve next year's foreign aid to Egypt.