Iran naval ships enter Suez Canal: official

Ismailia, EGYPT (Agencies)

Canal’s northern mouth around 100 km from Israel

Two Iranian naval ships entered the Suez Canal on Tuesday and were heading towards the
Mediterranean, a canal official said, a move certain to anger Israel. “The two ships entered the canal on Tuesday at around 5:45 am (0335 GMT),” the official said. A normal journey through the 163-kilometer (101-mile) waterway takes between 12 and 14 hours. Israel, meanwhile, urged world powers to respond “firmly” in what the Jewish state says is a provocation. “We are talking about an unprecedented Iranian military presence in the Mediterranean, and that is a provocation to which the international community must react firmly,” foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told AFP. The Suez Canal cuts through Egypt and allows shipping to pass from the Middle East to Europe and vice versa without circumnavigating the southern tip of Africa.

100 km away from Israel

The canal’s northern mouth, Port Said, is around 100 km (60 miles) from Israel, but the ships’ route to Syria, their intended destination, would take them parallel to the Israeli coast. The vessels are a frigate and a supply ship.

The patrol frigate Alvand and support ship Kharg were the first Iranian warships through Suez since the 1979 Islamic revolution, and are reportedly bound for Syria, a destination that necessarily involves passing Israel.

Egypt’s official MENA news agency has reported that the request for the ships to transit the canal said they were not carrying weapons or nuclear and chemical materials.

The 1,500-tonne Alvand is normally armed with torpedoes and anti-ship missiles, while the larger 33,000-ton Kharg has a crew of 250 and facilities for up to three helicopters, Iran’s official Fars news agency has said.

Both ships were built in Britain during the 1970s for Iran, which ordered them before the Islamic revolution.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had previously said he would take a “grave view” of the passage of the ships, the first Iranian naval vessels to go through the canal since Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution.

Iran appears to be testing the state of affairs in the Middle East after the fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. A longstanding peace treaty with Egypt is crucial to Israel’s regional security.

Anxious Israel

Israel is anxious about political upheaval in Egypt and other Arab states aligned with its ally the United States.

Polls in Egypt suggest most of the main political forces will be less compliant with Israel and its ally the United States, although no group has called for the abrogation of the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty.

A recently completed Israeli war game, the first since Mubarak quit Egypt’s presidency, concluded it would boost military preparations but try to avoid confrontation unless it sees a greater threat from arch-foe Iran.

Egypt’s ruling military council, facing its first diplomatic headache since taking power on Feb. 11, has approved the vessels’ passage through the canal, a vital global trading route and major source of revenues for the Egyptian authorities.

The decision was a difficult one for Egypt’s interim government. Cairo is an ally of the United States while its relations with Iran have been strained for more than three decades.

Analysts say Iran sees itself benefiting from the upheaval across the Middle East. Dislodgement and weakening of leaders sympathetic to the United States is likely to embolden Tehran, and lessen the chances of it making concessions on its nuclear program. Iran denies it intends to build atomic weapons.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman last week labeled the move a “provocation”.

The animosity between Iran and Israel has grown under the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who in October 2005 told a “world without Zionism” conference that the Jewish state would one day be “wiped off the map”.