Israel sends message to Iran via the Suez Canal

The Israeli navy regularly sends ships through the canal - the significance of the latest passages is the publicity generated.

JERUSALEM // For the second time in recent weeks Israeli navy vessels have sailed through the Suez Canal in what is widely being interpreted as a warning to Iran. According to Israeli media reports, two Israeli Saar gunboats sailed through the Suez Canal on Tuesday. Britain recently announced it would no longer supply Israel with spare parts for Saars because London believes their cannons were used illegally against targets in Gaza. News of the Suez passages came on the same day that delegates, including Manouchehr Mottaki, Iran's foreign minister, began to gather for a two-day Non-Aligned Movement summit in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh, which is in the Sinai not far from the canal. It also follows reports in late June that an Israeli submarine capable of carrying nuclear weapons and accompanied by two other gunships sailed through Suez. That incident also received wide media coverage and it is that coverage, rather than the movement of the vessels, that is interesting, said Shlomo Brom, a senior analyst with the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. "The significance lies in the fuss around it. To send a navy vessel through Suez is normal for training purposes and there is nothing significant in that alone. [But] the media fuss is significant and this may be intentional [on behalf of the Israeli military], so there may be a message for Iran." That message, according to Mr Brom, is that Israel is "capable of operating" in that area should it wish to take any military action against Iran. Successive Israeli governments have identified Iran as the main threat against Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, ran for elections on the promise of a more belligerent posture towards Tehran. But talk of an Israeli strike against Iranian nuclear installations, regularly heard in the dying months of the Bush administration, tapered off after Barack Obama, the US president, was elected on a platform of engagement, notably with Iran. It was never off the table, however, and Israel has made clear on a number of occasions that a military strike is considered a feasible option in the highest government circles. Shimon Peres, the Israeli president, told an Israeli radio station in April that if the United States failed in its efforts to engage Tehran, Israel would strike. This prompted an official Iranian protest to the UN against such threats, which Tehran said were a violation of international law. The Iranian election in June and the turmoil that followed appears also to have set back Mr Obama's policy of engagement and encouraged Israeli officials to sound more belligerent, as US officials, past and present, did the same. Israeli navy movement through the Suez Canal, fairly routine but rarely publicised before these last two incidents, thus fit into a larger pattern of recent Israeli posturing vis-à-vis Iran. That is certainly how it is seen in Gaza, where Taher Nuno, a Hamas spokesman, said Israel was acting like a "rogue state". "Israel always creates crises. It is a state built on exercising aggression against others. Accordingly, the movement of warships must affect the security of any Arab state or any state in the region." Mr Nuno warned against any Israeli aggression against Iran, but said that whom Egypt lets through the Suez is its own affair. The fact that the Israeli navy operated through the canal has raised suggestions that Cairo, along with Israel, wanted to send a message to Iran. Egyptian officials have said only that the Egypt-Israel peace agreement allows for such movement. Iranian-Egyptian relations have long been tense. Formal relations were suspended when Egypt and Israel signed their peace agreement in 1979 and both countries see themselves as major regional players, with Cairo often accusing Tehran of meddling in Arab affairs. Relations were further strained by the unravelling of what Cairo said was a Hizbollah spy ring in Egypt this year. Hizbollah, a Shiite militant group and political party based in Lebanon, has Iranian support. Three meetings in a week in Sharm El-Sheikh on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement summit between Ahmed Aboul-Gheit, the Egyptian foreign minister, and Mr Mottaki, however, suggest that relations between the two countries are improving. The meetings, according to an Iranian official, took place in a "positive and cordial atmosphere". Mr Brom also said he did not believe that the movement of navy vessels through the Suez signalled the beginning of any imminent Israeli military operation. "If Israel really meant to strike, it wouldn't publicise it like this." [e-mail]