CAIRO: The alleged Israeli Mossad agent arrested in Egypt this week is an American citizen, Israeli newspapers are reporting and the American State Department has confirmed. According to daily Israeli newspaper Ynetnews, American officials in Egypt have visited Elan Grappel in detention. The Israeli government has denied any knowledge of the person the Egyptian authorities are saying is a Mossad spy arrested in Egypt on Sunday over suspicions of spying and recruiting young Egyptians to move against the military rulers of the country. Jerusalem Post quoted a Foreign Ministry official in Jerusalem saying the ministry was “totally and completely unfamiliar with the story,” and was looking into the matter, after first hearing about it in the media. Judge Hesham Badawi of the Supreme State Security Prosecution ordered the suspect, named as Elan Chaim Grabel, detained for 15 days on suspicion of “spying on Egypt with the aim of harming its economic and political interests,” the MENA news agency reported. According to other reports, Elan Chaim participated in the 2006 Lebanon war and was relieved of field combat duties after being injured. He was arrested in a five-star hotel in downtown Cairo, MENA reported. Investigators had kept a close eye on his activities for months, and suspect he is involved in espionage, the spokesman said in the article. The espionage allegations comes only days after Egyptian natural gas began returning again to Israel following a shutdown of a pipeline on the Sinai Peninsula because of sabotage. The delivery was halted after an April attack on the pipeline — the second such attack on the Egyptian pipeline infrastructure since the toppling of the Mubarak government. Israel receives about 40 percent of its natural gas from Egypt. The pipeline represents one of the major economic agreements between the two nations. The issue of gas sales to Israel has become highly controversial in Egypt with various allegations circulating that Israel received below-market prices for the gas and that Egyptian government officials enriched themselves on the deal. BM
