ANALYSIS / Hezbollah and Iran have become Egyptian targets

[Fozzledick]

By Zvi Bar'el

This week a fierce war broke out between Egypt and Iran, after brewing in the interrogation rooms of Egyptian intelligence officials for at least five months. The ultimate decision about publicizing the existence of a Hezbollah cell on Egyptian soil was made by Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who - after receiving the nod from President Hosni Mubarak - was assisted by the minister of information in making the news available to all government newspapers in Egypt.

...

The Egyptian reports did not make any obvious mention of the connections between the espionage ring and Hamas, even though it was clear that the network's objective was to smuggle weapons, missiles and sophisticated sabotage materials into the Strip. Hamas announced this week, in a relatively low-key way, that it knew nothing about the network's activities. Why is Egypt not pointing an accusatory finger at Hamas, instead emphasizing the role of Hezbollah and Iran? The answer apparently lies in Cairo's efforts to secure inter- Palestinian reconciliation: Egypt wants to maintain its status as an honest broker in talks between Fatah and Hamas, which would become impossible should Hamas be implicated in the network's activities.

On the other hand, Hezbollah and Iran have become Egyptian targets. Nasrallah's vilification of Mubarak during the 2006 Second Lebanon War and the way he belittled Egyptian efforts to secure Lebanese reconciliation, as well as his preference for Qatar over Egypt - all played a role in igniting the first public crisis between Cairo and Hezbollah. During the military operation in the Strip, Nasrallah accused Egypt of collaborating with Israel by placing Gaza under siege and even went so far as to call on Egyptians to overthrow their government.

...

Egypt has now become an overt enemy of both Iran and Hezbollah, and like Israel, Cairo, too, fears a reprisal action by Hezbollah. An Egyptian government source told Haaretz that there is now a danger that there will be an "Egyptian Gilad Shalit" in addition to the abducted Israeli soldier.

"This is an organization that knows no boundaries, in every respect," wrote Tareq al-Hamid, the editor of the Saudi Arabian newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat. "Nasrallah is like Osama bin Laden," he continued. "He knows no limits and obeys no laws. His people act like dormant cells and just like al-Qaida activists went to the United States, so Hezbollah activists will go to Egypt." The question is whether this affair will also have an effect on the emerging ties between Washington and Tehran.

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1078866.html


So what does this make the enemy of Egypt's enemy?

[MADem]

1. Egypt is famous for pushing their problems off elsewhere--EXCEPT when it gets personal.

Egypt is a friend to Israel and the USA. They get a shitload of Foreign Military Sales funding from the USA.

Half the reason that AQ in Afghanistan was able to secure such a strong foothold is because in years past, Egypt would simply toss their troublemakers out of the country instead of jailing them and making their lives miserable as a warning to others, as is the habit in that part of the world. These malcontents, freed, toddled of to the Stan and sent back, periodically, for money raised at the more radical masjids, and that helped grow the Taleban power base faster than it otherwise would have.

There's a religious war getting ready to happen in the Middle East--a clash of the sects. Shi'a V. Sunni, LIVE and in living color. Make no mistake about that. Best bet? Duck. It's gonna get ugly. Let's hope their aim is halfway decent, so they don't get too much on us.