http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1078205.html
Last update - 22:46 13/04/2009
Egypt to Hezbollah: We'll strike back if you attack us
By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent, and News Agencies
Tags: israel news, hezbollah, egypt
Egypt relayed a scathing message to Hezbollah, demanding that the
Lebanon-based Shi'ite organization publicly vow to respect Egypt's sovereign
territory and to disclose specific details of its clandestine activities inside
the country, the editor of the Egyptian newspaper A-Shuruk revealed Monday in
an interview to Al-Arabiya television.
The Cairo government threatened to act against Hezbollah if the group
does not meet its demands. Egypt passed the message along to the Lebanese
government and not directly to Hezbollah, according to the editor, Abd el-Azim
Hamad.
A-Shuruk was the first publication to report on the Israeli air strikes
against weapons smugglers in Sudan. Hamad said that Egypt's demand that
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah use caution in his words and refrain from
attacking targets inside Egypt was unequivocal.
A Hezbollah agent arrested in Egypt last week told investigators his cell
was planning attacks on Israeli targets to avenge the killing of terrorist
mastermind Imad Mughniyeh, the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat reported Monday.
Sami Shehab, the Hezbollah operative, said his cell surveilled tourist
sites in Taba, Dahab and Sharm el-Sheikh and tracked Israeli ships passing
through the Suez Canal, according to the newspaper.
Shehab was one of 49 alleged Hezbollah agents arrested by Egypt last week
on suspicion of planning attacks aimed at destabilizing the country.
Egyptian police are tracking down 13 members of an alleged Hezbollah cell
believed to be hiding out with Bedouins in the Sinai peninsula, a security
official said Monday.
The men are thought to be 10 Lebanese and three Sudanese - part of a
group of 49 members of an alleged Hezbollah cell that the government announced
is plotting to attack Egyptian institutions and Israeli tourists.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not
authorized to speak to the media, said the men had taken shelter in the central
Sinai town of al-Nakhl.
Mughniyeh, Hezbollah's second-in-command, was assassinated in a February
2008 car bombing in Damascus. Hezbollah blames Israel for the killing, and has
threatened to carry out attacks to avenge it. Israel denies involvement in the
assassination.
Nasrallah, meanwhile, has rejected Egyptian the accusations but confirmed
over the weekend that it had dispatched an operative to Egypt - a rare
acknowledgment that the Lebanese militant group was operating in another Arab
country.
Nasrallah said Shehab was arrested Nov. 19 along with other Egyptian and
Palestinian citizens on charges of smuggling arms and equipment to Gaza through
the Egyptian border.
Late Sunday, Egypt's attorney general added espionage to the charges
against 49 alleged Hezbollah agents.
Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud told Egypt's state run news agency MENA that the
alleged agents, including Lebanese, Palestinian, Egyptian and Sudanese
nationals, have been spying for a foreign group intending to carry out
terrorist attacks in Egypt.
Members of the Hezbollah cell were said to have bought ingredients to
make explosive devices at a Cairo market, which they smuggled into the Gaza
Strip and Israel along with terrorists, according to reports in Arab press.
Shehab, a Lebanese national, was apparently Hezbollah's main operative in
Egypt. According to reports, he smuggled arms into Gaza and often presented
himself as a Palestinian residing in Syria.
He fought against Israel Defense Forces soldiers in southern Lebanon,
according to the Al Hayat daily, and took on intelligence and logistical
assignments after being wounded in fighting.
In his first comments on the affair, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak
told Lebanon's prime minister in a phone call on Sunday that Egypt "will not
allow anyone to violate its borders or destabilize the country."
Related articles:
a.. ANALYSIS / Egypt anger over Iran likely led to Hezbollah spat
a.. Egypt: Hezbollah targeted Israeli tourists in Sinai
a.. 'Nasrallah wants to turn Egypt into Lebanon'
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