Mubarak vs. Hizbullah II

Hosni Mubarak

In the latest twist in the story of the Hizbullah infiltration of Egypt, the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported that the terror group planned to use Israeli Arabs visiting Sinai to smuggle bombs and weapons into Israel for use in terror attacks. According to the paper, members of the Hizbullah cell recently arrested by Egyptian authorities had admitted to the plan under questioning.Egyptian security officials said that among the 25 suspects already arrested in the case were a large number of Sinai Bedouin, who were likely to have contacts among Israeli Bedouin, and who would have been the conduit for the smuggling. The arrests began back in November.

The leader of the espionage ring, Sami Shehab, who is among those detained, was a Hizbullah agent. He recruited Lebanese, Syrians, Sudanese, and Palestinians along with 12 Egyptian Shiites. They planned to attack Israeli vacationers in the Sinai, apparently as revenge for the February 2008 killing of Hezbollah mastermind Imad Moughniyeh. They also planned to smuggle Iranian weapons into Gaza.

Shehab planned to set up a terror infrastructure throughout Egypt and spread the Shiite ideology. He also aimed to buy a boat that would smuggle weapons into Egypt from Yemen, Sudan, and Somalia.

Zvi Mazel, the former Israeli ambassador to Egypt said, “The aim was to destabilize the country and provoke huge demonstrations that could bring down Mubarak’s regime and cause a military coup.”

Members of the ring also rented villas near the Israeli embassy in Cairo and in the town of Suez overlooking the Suez Canal. Their purpose was to monitor Suez Canal traffic and attack American or Israeli vessels in the canal.

Some mainstream Egyptians have condemned the plot and Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Some Egyptians are calling for his arrest. Nasrallah has replied by admitting responsibility for the group but claiming it was only intended to help Palestinians in Gaza. State-controlled newspaper al-Gomhouria blasted Nasrallah and called him “a Monkey Sheikh…a bandit and veteran criminal who killed your countrymen, but we will not allow you to threaten the security and safety of Egypt...and if you threaten its sovereignty, you will burn! Every Egyptian knows that you are an Iranian agent.

Yet, according to Israeli experts, the ring was only the tip of the iceberg. Lt.-Col. Moshe Marzouk of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center said, “Other cells operate in Egypt. The one that was uncovered is neither the first nor the last. Egypt’s territory has become no man’s land for the smuggling of money, weapons and terror cells. The Iranian grip on Egypt is rooted so deeply that it was doubtful that Mubarak’s regime would be able to confront it. The terror network is just part of the second stage of the Islamic revolution, whose goal is not only to take over Iran like in Khomeini’s days, but also to export the revolution to the Muslim countries of the region and help topple the Sunni regimes.”

If Egypt uncovered the plotters back in November, why has it waited till now to publicize it? The answer seems to lie in Mazel’s observation that President Barack Obama has started a dialogue with Syria and is about to begin one with Iran.” Mazel said Egypt and the rest of the Sunni camp are not too happy about that development. They would like to see Israel and the U.S. bomb Iran and do away with the Iranian threat, since they know very well it will not be removed by diplomacy.

The question is whether Obama can listen before it’s too late. The Palestinian issue is not central to the relatively geopolitically pro-Western Arab states in the region like Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and smaller Gulf states. The Sunni states are much more concerned about the push for hegemony by Iran and its allies Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas, and others. They know Iran and its allies cannot be deflected from its designs with professions of friendship and “respect.