Under pressure from the U.S. and Israel, Egypt has significantly improved its efforts at detecting and destroying tunnels used for smuggling weapons across its border into the Gaza Strip, a U.S. congressman said Monday.
U.S. Rep. Steve Israel, a New York Democrat, said Egypt's agreement to work with U.S. trainers and spend $23 million in American military aid on technical equipment to detect the tunnels could assuage Washington's concerns about the seriousness of Cairo's efforts.
The new initiatives - which the lawmaker announced Sunday after meeting with Egyptian President Mubarak - followed a campaign in the U.S. Congress to withhold some of the $1.3 billion in military aid to Egypt until the government makes a number of reforms, including stopping arms smuggling to the Islamic militant group Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in June.
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Israel has also blamed Egypt for not doing enough to prevent weapons from
reaching Gaza, an accusation that has been denied by Cairo and has raised
tension between the two countries.
Several months ago, some Egyptian officials told me that the tunnels were not a big problem and were being exaggerated by the Israelis, Rep. Israel told The Associated Press by telephone on Monday. Now they are actually closing tunnels, detecting tunnels and they admit that it is a problem.
"The important thing for me is whether this will be an ongoing commitment, and if it is, the issue comes off the table for me in future appropriation debates," the lawmaker added.
Rep. Israel met with Mubarak on Sunday in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheik, where he discussed the leader's efforts to counter the smuggling.
"I thanked him for his leadership in allowing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to examine the tunnels in November 2007," the congressman said in a statement issued Sunday after the meeting.
Rep. Israel said Monday that the Army Corps of Engineers recommended more
state of the art equipment to assist the Egyptians, as well as U.S. training.
"Initially, there will be U.S. (Army Corps) personnel in Egypt for two months actually training Egyptian personnel how to use the equipment," said the lawmaker.
"I have suggested to the Egyptians that they accept a more sustained presence by U.S. civilians, which would help Congress determine that
everything that can be done to close the tunnels is being done."
Egyptian officials were unavailable for comment because Monday was a holiday in the country.
Friction has been rising between Israel and its southern neighbor recently because of Israeli concerns that Cairo isn't doing enough to stop the smuggling into Gaza. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni recently said Egypt was doing a terrible job policing the border, and Israel sent to Washington what it said was a videotape of Egyptian soldiers allowing Palestinian arms smuggling.
Egypt has criticized and belittled Livni and accused Israel of trying to
persuade the U.S. government to cut aid to Egypt. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit has said his government would retaliate diplomatically.
Rep. Israel said Egypt's agreement to work with the U.S. could significantly improve the situation.
"Egypt's partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers presents an
important opportunity for Egypt to use their forces, our trainers, and new equipment to discover and destroy these tunnels," he said.
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