The Jerusalem Post's Defense Correspondent Yaakov Katz reported Wednesday night that “Israel has agreed to a second deployment of Egyptian military forces in the Sinai Peninsula to crack down on Bedouin violence and to protect a gas pipeline that supplies natural gas to Israel.” According to Katz, Israel has already “allowed Egypt to deploy two battalions of about 800 troops in the Peninsula earlier this month. The new deployment was made under the condition that the troops will withdraw the moment they are asked to by Israel.” Other reports indicated a much smaller deployment. Katz quoted “a senior Israeli security official” as saying “It will take the Egyptians a long time to restore order in the Sinai.” His report in the JPost is posted here. Katz wrote that “According to defense officials, Israel decided to allow the Egyptian to deploy more troops in the Sinai in small numbers to secure the gas pipeline and to work to prevent the smuggling of weaponry from the Sinai and into the Gaza Strip. Earlier this month, terrorists bombed a gas station in the Sinai leading to a suspension in gas supplies to Israel from Egypt”. Meanwhile, Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Wednesday that plans for two Iranian warships to sail through the Suez canal overnight en route to Syria is the latest “provocation” from Tehran. According to a report in Israel's YNet website here, Lieberman said, in a text which was distributed by his office, that this is “something that has not happened in many years”. YNet added that Lieberman said, in a statement issued by his office: “the international community must understand that Israel cannot forever ignore these provocations”. According to YNet, this indicates that Lieberman is “hinting at an Israeli response.” Haaretz's Barak Ravid reported here that “the Egyptian body that runs the Suez Canal denied the claim. Ahmed el-Manakhli, head of the canal operations room, said warships must get permission 48 hours before crossing, and so far, ‘we have not been notified'.” It was also reported here that Mankeali added: “The Suez Canal does not prevent the passage of any ship, as long as it is not belligerent.” According to Ravid's report in Haaretz, Israel's “Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in an e-mailed statement that Israel is closely following the movements of the Iranian ships and has updated friendly states on the issue”. Israel's freewheeling DebkaFile website (“We start where the media stops”, it claims) also reported Wednesday night here that the Israeli military is closely monitoring the transit of “the Iranian frigate Alvand and cruiser Kharg”. DebkaFile said this would be the first time Cairo has permitted Iranian warships to transit Suez from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, although Israeli traffic in the opposite direction had been allowed”. There have been reports in other media in recent months that Israeli submarines traveled through the Suez Canal to the Persian Gulf, apparently to participate in U.S. military maneuvers there, designed to put pressure on Iran. BM
