Egypt accuses Israel of meddling with US ties

Egypt accused Israel yesterday of interfering in its relations with the United States as tensions rose over alleged arms smuggling into Gaza during a visit by Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak.
Barak was in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh for his first meeting with President Hosni Mubarak since assuming the defence portfolio in June, but Mubarak spokesman Suleiman Awad hit out at what he said was an Israeli-influenced US decision to suspend a slice of aid to Egypt.
"Egypt rejects and denounces the Israeli government's interference in the US Congress's decision to suspend 100 million dollars in military aid to Egypt," Awad told AFP.
The US Congress last week froze the aid until US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice could certify that Egypt was doing enough to stem the flow of arms into the Gaza Strip where the Islamist movement Hamas took over in June.
Awad said the Israeli accusations, increasingly frequent in recent days, were a way of distracting attention from Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank and from the lack of success from last month's US-hosted peace meeting in the city of Annapolis.
"Israel's accusations towards Egypt are a smokescreen to deflect attention from the ongoing settlement construction and the failure to follow up on Annapolis," he said.
A senior Barak aide rejected the charges of interference, saying "Israel has never acted in that way and will never do so because in the end our joint interests are much stronger than this issue."
Barak, who also met his Egyptian counterpart Mohammed Hussein Tantawi and intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, sought to lower tensions with Egypt, the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with the Jewish state.
"Peace with Egypt is a strategic asset to both sides and as in the past when there have been disputes they had to be worked out," the former prime minister said.
A senior defence ministry official travelling with Barak said Israeli officials had recently handed over to Egyptian security services "an array of evidence and intelligence reports on weapons smuggling".
He said the evidence included video footage of Egyptian border police allegedly helping militants cross into Gaza, but Awad said such evidence "does not reflect the reality on the ground."
"We are exerting 100 percent effort but we cannot guarantee 100 percent results. No state can totally seal off its borders," Awad said, pointing out that when Israel controlled the Gaza Strip -- from 1967 to 2005 -- it also was unable to stem the flow of weapons and militants.
Cairo on Tuesday strongly rejected accusations by Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni that Egypt's actions along the Gaza border were "problematic."
"The Israeli minister would do better to concentrate on negotiation efforts with the Palestinians... instead of speaking without weighing her words about things she should not deal with without having enough information," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Israel has often accused Egypt of doing too little to counter alleged arms smuggling via tunnels dug from Gaza into Egyptian territory. Cairo has denied the charge.
Shortly before Barak's arrival, Egyptian security forces announced the arrest of "one of the most dangerous arms smugglers to Gaza," and seized half a tonne of explosives from his house, a security source told AFP.