http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1074315.html
Last update - 03:33 27/03/2009
Estimates: Sudan strike targeted weapons that could hit Tel Aviv
By Haaretz Correspondent and News Agencies , By Amos Harel, Barak Ravid
and Yoav Stern
Tags: air strike, Iran, Israel news
Alluding to what foreign media reports say was an Israeli Air Force
strike in Sudan in January, outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned Thursday
that no place is out of Israel's reach.
The air strike reportedly hit a convoy of Iranian arms passing through
Sudan en route to the Gaza Strip.
"We operate everywhere we can hit terrorist infrastructure - in nearby
places, in places further away, anywhere we can strike them in a way that
increases deterrence," Olmert told a conference in Herzliya.
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"Everyone can use their imagination. Those who need to know, know there
is no place where Israel cannot operate. Such a place doesn't exist," he said.
Channel 10 television broadcast an interview with a Sudanese minister's
adviser who said that targets on or near Sudanese territory were bombed twice,
and the second air strike destroyed a ship carrying Iranian arms.
Israeli officials declined to confirm or deny Israel's involvement in the
air strike in Sudan. They also refused to comment on the various foreign media
reports about the strike.
Any Israeli decision to attack such a distant target would likely have
been based on the belief that Iran could deliver arms into Gaza, possibly
including 70-kilometer-range Fajr rockets. That range would allow Hamas
operatives to strike into the heart of Israel, Tel Aviv, from their Gaza bases.
Mubarak Mabrook Saleem, Sudan's State Minister for Transportation, told
The Associated Press he believed American planes were behind the bombings,
which he said took place about a week apart.
He also claimed hundreds of people from several African states had been
killed. The U.S. denied any air strike on Sudan.
Arab and U.S. media reports said that Israel was behind the attacks,
since the convoys were smuggling weapons destined for Gaza. Hamas, which rules
Gaza, smuggles weapons into the Strip through tunnels along the Egyptian
border.
Due to the intensive international activity to prevent arms smuggling to
Gaza that followed Operation Cast Lead in the Strip earlier this year Egypt
began sending forces to its border with Sudan after that operation in an effort
to prevent smuggling into Gaza. The alleged Israeli air strike also contributed
to Iran's decision.
The Iranians are concerned over the memorandum of understanding signed
between Israel and the United States to combat smuggling into Gaza, the source
said. Eight NATO members also said they would join the anti-smuggling effort.
The Iranians see the recent interception of the arms ship Monchegorsk,
which was en route to Syria, as a warning of the difficulties they are likely
to face in delivering arms, the source added. That ship, which was carrying
arms from Iran to the Syrian army, was stopped in Cyprus following American
pressure and its cargo was confiscated.
The source said the Iranians, who established smuggling networks via the
Persian Gulf, Aden and east Africa, with an emphasis on Sudan. In the past the
Iranians have tried to smuggle arms via Turkey. The routes planned to move
weapons in planes, trucks and trains, and from Turkey to Syria and from Syria
to Lebanon. A few of these shipments were caught by Turkish security services
working against the smuggling.
A senior intelligence source said: "The Egyptians are patrolling the
border and inspecting it," he said. "They weren't doing that until now. They
started doing it because of the increased international pressure to act against
the smuggling. But so far, the results are only partial
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