Egypt thwarts Iranian plot to sink Israeli ship in Suez Canal

Egyptian paper reports that Iran plotted to attack an Israeli ship in the Suez Canal to engineer a crisis between Israel and Egypt • Iran offered to pay attackers 50 million Egyptian pounds ($8 million) • Two suspects are arrested.

Daniel Syrioti and Reuters, YNET

Egyptian security has thwarted an Iranian-backed plot to attack Israeli ships passing through the Suez Canal, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram reported on Saturday. The report said information about the plot was provided by senior officials in the State Security Claims Department of Egypt’s Justice Ministry.

According to the report, Egyptian intelligence agents discovered that Iran had recruited a team of Egyptian citizens and tasked them with sinking an Israeli ship while it passed through the Suez Canal. Iran, the report said, had hopes that the attack would engineer a diplomatic crisis between Israel and Egypt, whose cold-peace relationship has deteriorated since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak.

The Suez Canal is an Egyptian-controlled artificial naval passageway that links the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea. The canal enables ships to reach Asia from Europe without having to navigate around Africa. Nearly 10 percent of global sea-borne trade passes through the 192-km (120-mile) stretch of waterway.

Egyptian security forces reportedly arrested two Egyptian citizens, Salama Ahmed, 25, and Soliman Abdel Razek, 27, suspected of being involved in the plot. The suspects are said to be part of the team sent to sabotage the Israeli ships. The two alleged suspects have already been indicted in an Egyptian court.

According to an Egyptian security official, police searched property belonging to the suspects but had not found any explosives, notes or drawings related to the navigational path of the canal. There was no evidence the suspects had any links to foreigners, the official added.

Al-Ahram said that during their interrogation, the suspects claimed they were asked to mediate between Iranian officials and a third party who would carry out the attack for a payment of 50 million Egyptian pounds ($8 million). The transaction would supposedly have been made through pro-Iranian Shiite activists after the attack.

Based on information provided by the suspects, security forces reportedly arrested a third man, Mohammed Zahkri, who is believed to have been tasked with actually executing the attack. Zahkri, however, was released without being indicted.

Sources at the Suez Canal Authority said there were no threats to navigation through the waterway, but that security was nevertheless being tightened as a precaution. The source said the canal’s security system was difficult to penetrate.

Both Israel and Iran have recently sent ships through the canal, leading some military analysts to surmise the two countries are flexing their maritime muscles to deter each other. In February, two Iranian warships sailed through the Suez Canal en route to Syria. Israel called the move a “provocation,” but the vessels were seen as posing no serious military threat.

On March 13, two Israeli ships passed through the canal into the Red Sea. According to French news agency AFP, an Israeli security official said at the time that the ships’ movement, “was routine; they were on their way to Eilat.”