[Ha'aretz] Barak Ravid and Amos Harel - Israel has turned down an American proposal to increase the number of Egyptian soldiers deployed along the Philadelphi Route to stem the flow of smuggled weapons from Sinai to Gaza. Foreign Ministry Director General Aharon Abramovitch and the head of the political-military bureau at the Defense Ministry, Amos Gilad, told senior American officials that until Egypt meets its agreements on countering smuggling along the Gaza border, "there is no room to discuss increasing the number of soldiers." The two Israeli officials charged that "Egypt's problem is not the number of soldiers but the lack of motivation." Egypt warns that Israeli accusations that the smugglers are being aided by elements in the Egyptian security establishment undermine the motivation of their security forces to fight against the smuggling. Senior Israeli sources said that statistics Cairo is presenting about tunnels uncovered and explosives confiscated are "inflated and baseless."
2007-11-12 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive