Barak Travels to Sharm El-Sheikh
CBNNews.com
December 26, 2007
CBNNews.com - JERUSALEM, Israel - Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, accompanied by Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna'i, traveled to Sharm el-Sheikh Wednesday to meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarrak and Intelligence Minister Omar Suleiman.
Barak and Vilna'i confronted the Egyptian leaders with concrete evidence of continuing arms smuggling from Egypt into the Gaza Strip to which Suleiman responded that "they're working to end it soon."
Last week, Israel planned to forward video footage to U.S. congressmen showing Egyptian security forces aiding Palestinian terrorists along the border with the Gaza Strip, but later rescinded on the plan for as yet unknown reasons.
Israel hoped the videotaped evidence of Egyptian complicity in arms smuggling with Gaza-based Hamas operatives would convince U.S. legislators to penalize Egypt by curbing military aid.
Egypt responded by criticizing Israeli "settlement" expansion.
"This settlement activity will hijack the only outcome of the Annapolis conference, which was the relaunching of peace negotiations," Mubarak told the press after the meeting.
"The failure of two rounds of negotiations between the Israeli and the Palestinian sides this month is due to the Israeli settlement activity," he said.
Earlier, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said he would talk to "significant international parties, particularly the U.S," while a government spokesman said "settlement activities and peace are non-reconcilable opposites" and "Israel has to determine its choices."
The Philadelphi Corridor
Following Israel's August 2005 pullout from the Gush Katif Settlement Bloc in the Gaza Strip, then Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz turned over control of the Philadelphi Corridor -- a narrow strip of land separating the Gaza Strip from the Sinai -- to Egyptian security forces.
While Egypt turned a blind eye to smuggling from Sinai prior to taking over the Philadephi Corridor, the arms smuggling multiplied exponentially in the ensuing two years.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officials said its intelligence arm had extensive, concrete evidence of Egypt's role in the ongoing arms smuggling to Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip.
Sources: Haaretz, The Jerusalem Post
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