JERUSALEM – Qatar provided the original tip that led to the U.S. Navy intercepting an Iranian ship carrying weapons allegedly intended to rearm Hamas in the Gaza Strip, according to a top Egyptian intelligence official speaking to WND.
The claim could not immediately be verified by the U.S. Navy or defense sources in Jerusalem.
Qatar, an oil rich Arab emirate bordering Saudi Arabia, has long maintained a supportive relationship with Hamas. The country is heavily invested in the Al Jazeera TV network, which strongly tows the Hamas position, even against the U.S.-backed Palestinian Authority. The Qatari leadership regularly voices support for Hamas.
Last weekend, WND reported the U.S. Navy was conducting covert operations aimed at intercepting Iranian ships carrying weapons to rearm Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The setup halted a vessel bearing a Cypriot flag and carrying Iranian munitions. The Iranian-owned ship was found to be carrying rockets, mortar and artillery shells. It is suspected the ship was attempting to reach the Egyptian Sinai area. If successful, the delivery would have represented a major escalation by providing Hamas with artillery, which the terrorist organization is not thought to possess.
The ship has been docked at an Egyptian port on the Red Sea after the U.S. Navy escorted it out of the Suez Canal, which leads to the Mediterranean, the defense officials said. Due to complicated maritime laws, the U.S. and Egypt may let the ship sail to the Mediterranean, where either Israeli or Egyptian naval units would need to decide whether to entirely halt the vessel.
In response, the Iranian Foreign Ministry today summoned the head of the Egyptian Interest Section in Tehran, Amr Ahmed Abd el Meguid El Zayat, to protest Egypt’s involvement in stopping what Iran claimed was a “relief ship” intended for Gaza.
The state-run Iranian IRNA news agency quoted an unnamed Iranian official stating, “Iran’s ship has been waiting in the international waters close to Gaza port as well as Egyptian waters for a long time.”
The official urged Egypt to “inform Iran of its final decisions regarding the issue the soonest possible.”
According to Egyptian defense sources, aside from patrolling the seas, the U.S. has also sent the Army’s Corps of Engineers to the Egyptian Sinai desert, bringing with them advanced machinery to help Egyptian troops locate weapons smuggling tunnels that snake along the Egypt-Gaza border.
Last week, WND broke the story of Egyptian troops undergoing training in Texas on the use of American military technology to uncover Hamas’ weapons smuggling tunnels. A top Egyptian intelligence official told WND the Egyptian troops arrived in Texas in recent days, where they have been undergoing private courses on the use of proprietary, secretive U.S. technology that makes use of sonar and certain frequencies to locate underground tunnels along the Egypt-Gaza border.
The WND story was referenced in scores of Arab-language articles, including the state-run Egyptian media, which did not deny the report.
The new naval patrols and U.S. presence along the Gaza border comes in line with a memorandum of understanding signed between Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The deal aims to curb Hamas rearmament and also includes patrols of the Persian Gulf, Sudan and neighboring states.
One of Israel’s main goals for its offensive was to halt Hamas’ ability to smuggle weapons across the Egypt-Gaza border.
Israel is negotiating an international monitoring mechanism it hopes will stop Hamas from smuggling weapons from neighboring Egypt into Gaza. But previous international monitors stationed along the Egypt-Gaza border fled their duty and repeatedly failed to stem Hamas’ weapons smuggling.
The monitors were stationed at the border following Israel’s 2005 evacuation of the Gaza Strip.
The Israel Defense Forces reportedly destroyed 60 to 70 percent of an estimated 600 smuggling tunnels between Gaza and neighboring Egypt.
Hamas sources speaking to WND claim the actual number of tunnels is closer to 1,300. The sources claimed Hamas was working to change the method of its weapons smuggling to rely more on sea shipments and less on smuggling tunnels.
Last Tuesday, the Associated Press reported from the Egypt-Gaza border that just hours after Israeli troops withdrew from the border area, the smuggling tunnels were back in business, used by locals to bring in supplies.
The AP also reported hundreds of workers in southern Gaza labored to repair dozens of tunnels dug under tents or fake greenhouses.
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