Last update - 00:00 18/11/2007
Dichter: Egyptians can stop Gaza border smuggling in one hour
By Haaretz Service
Public Security Minister Avi Dichter criticized Egypt on Sunday for not doing enough to stop the weapons smuggling from Sinai into the Gaza Strip.
Dichter made the statement while touring the settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip.
The minister maintained that the Egyptians could put an end to the smuggling of weapons and supplies into the Gaza Strip across the Egyptian border "within one hour."
Dichter added that in light of the ongoing smuggling and Egypt's failure to prevent it, a major Israel Defense Forces operation in the Gaza seems inevitable.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak made similar
remarks several weeks ago, after the situation in the southern Gaza Strip worsened, saying that the IDF was moving closer to an extensive ground action in the Gaza Strip.
Last month, Dichter met with Middle East envoy and former British prime minister Tony Blair 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 upcoming regional peace summit, scheduled to take place at the end of this month in Annapolis, Maryland.
"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 have also asked their American counterparts to raise the issue with the Egyptians, saying the porous border in Sinai "is becoming a strategic problem."
"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."
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