Barak lands in Egypt for meeting with Mubarak
Defense minister arrives in Sinai resort town for meeting with Egyptian president, Intelligence Chief Suleiman. Leaders scheduled to discuss growing problem of weapons smuggling from Egypt into Gaza Strip
SHARM EL-SHEIKH - Defense Minister Ehud Barak landed in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh early Wednesday noon. Barak is scheduled to meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the country's Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman to discuss a series of security and diplomatic issues.
The focus of the talks is expected to be the rise in tensions between Egypt and the Palestinian Authority over Egypt's alleged failure to curb smuggling of weapons into Gaza, a fact PA officials claim works to bolster Hamas in the Strip.
The main assertion, which is also backed by Israel, is that Egyptian security forces allow smugglers to go through tunnels dug under the border with Gaza, in return for bribes.
Barak will also present Israel's demand from Egypt to boost forces deployed along the border area, in a bid to better rein in smuggling operations.
Trying to cool tensions
Senior State officials were burning the midnight oil in the small hours of Wednesday morning in an eleventh-hour effort to cool tensions and pave the way for Barak's journey to Sharm.
"Our relations with Egypt are of the utmost importance and no one intended to bring them to a boiling point," said the officials after a tense diplomatic bout ensued following Foreign Affair Minister Tzipi Livni's admonition of Egypt for failing to prevent the smuggling of arms across its border into Gaza.
Speaking at the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday, Livni said Egyptian security forces were doing a "terrible job" in securing the Philadelphi Route. In a thinly veiled message to Cairo, Livni said that the incessant cross-border smuggling would take its toll on relations between Israel and Egypt.
The Egyptian Foreign Affairs Ministry issued a strongly-worded rebuttal of Livni's claims, saying it would be better "for the Israeli minister to concentrate on negotiation efforts with the Palestinians, instead of speaking randomly about issues she should not be dealing with if she is not fully aware of the situation."
