Egypt denies Israeli sub sailed Suez Canal
By Reuters and Haaretz Service Last update - 18:55 04/07/2009
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1097643.html

A senior Egyptian security official on Saturday denied reports that an
Israeli submarine had sailed the Suez Canal last month as part of a naval
drill.

"Egypt does not allow Israeli warships to enter our territory," Army Radio
quoted the official as saying.

On Friday, defense sources reported that an Israeli submarine had sailed the
Suez Canal to the Red Sea last month, describing the unusual maneuver as a
show of strategic reach in the face of Iran.

Israel has long kept its three Dolphin-class submarines, which are widely
assumed to carry nuclear missiles, away from Suez so as not to expose them
to the gaze of Egyptian harbormasters.

The Egyptian official said Saturday that Cairo did not, nor will it in the
future, offer Israel logistic assistance in its efforts to attack Iran.

It was unclear when last month the vessel left the Mediterranean. One source
said the voyage was planned for months and so was not related to unrest
after the June 12 re-election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whom
Israel sees as promoting the pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Sailing to the Gulf without using Suez would force the diesel-fueled Israeli
submarines, normally based in the Mediterranean, to circumnavigate Africa -
a weeks-long voyage.

That would have limited use in signaling Israel's readiness to retaliate
should it ever come under an Iranian nuclear attack.

Shorter-term, the submarines' conventional missiles could also be deployed
in any Israeli strikes on Iran's atomic sites, which Tehran insists have
only civilian energy purposes.

A defense source said the Israeli navy held an exercise off Eilat last month
and that a Dolphin took part, having traveled to the Red Sea port though
Suez. Israel has a naval base at Eilat, a 10-km (6-mile) strip of coast
between Egypt and Jordan, but officials say it has no submarine dock there.

"This was definitely a departure from policy," said the source, who declined
to give further details on the drill or say whether the Dolphin had
undergone Egyptian inspections in the canal, through which the submarine
sailed unsubmerged.

A military spokeswoman had no immediate comment on the voyage, first
reported on Friday by the Jerusalem Post.

Egyptian officials at Suez said they would neither confirm nor deny reports
regarding military movements. One official said that if there was such a
passage by Israelis in the canal, it would not be problematic as Egypt and
Israel are not at war.

Egypt is one of only two Arab states to have signed a peace treaty with
Israel, but relations remain cool. However, Arab states that are allies of
the United States appear to share some of Israel's concerns about non-Arab
Iran's nuclear program.

Israel is assumed to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal, but does
not discuss this under an "ambiguity" policy billed as deterring its enemies
while avoiding provocations.

Another Israeli defense source with extensive naval experience said the
drill "showed that we can far more easily access the Indian Ocean, and the
Gulf, than before".

But the source added: "If indeed our subs are capable of doing to Iran what
they are believed to be capable of doing, then surely this is a capability
that can be put into action from the Mediterranean?"

Each German-made Dolphin has 10 torpedo tubes, four of them widened at
Israel's request - to accommodate, some independent analysts believe,
nuclear-tipped cruise missiles. But there have been questions about whether
these would have the 1,500-km (1,000-mile) range needed to hit Iran from the
Mediterranean.

Israel plans to acquire two more Dolphins early next decade. Naval analysts
say this could allow it to set up a rotation whereby some of the submarines
patrol distant shores while others secure the Israeli coast or dock to
undergo maintenance.