Sudan: the new battlefield in Iran and Israel's covert conflict
Warships from Tehran dock in Port Sudan as tensions between the two Middle
East powers escalate
<
http://www.independent.co.uk/biography/daniel-howden> Daniel Howden Author
Biography
Thursday 01 October 2012
Iranian warships have arrived in Port Sudan in an apparent show of support
for the government in Khartoum, one week after it accused Israel of bombing
an arms factory in the Sudanese capital.
Iran's state news agency confirmed yesterday that two vessels, a destroyer
and a helicopter carrier have docked in Sudan's main port on the Red Sea and
their commanders will be meeting Sudanese officials.
While Iran said the mission was related to anti-piracy efforts, the move
represents a possible escalation of a proxy war between Iran and Israel that
has been playing out in the conflict between the Sudans.
Israel has emerged as an influential military and commercial ally of South
Sudan since its independence last year, while Iran has strengthened its
links with the Khartoum regime.
A Sudanese military official said the naval visit was an "exchange of
amicable relations" between the two nations. Meanwhile Iranian officials
said the ships had been dispatched last month, prior to the arms factory
explosion in which four people were killed.
Israel has been accused of sending eight fighter jets to destroy an arms
factory in Khartoum last week, in a possible rehearsal for a strike on
Iranian nuclear targets. The government in Israel has refused to confirm or
deny the allegations, with Sudan saying it will report the country to the
UN. Israel has previously referred to Sudan as a "dangerous terrorist
state". Both Israel and the US have bombed targets inside Sudan.
Imagery released by the US monitoring group The Satellite Sentinel Project
supported the Sudanese claims of an air strike. Pictures released by the
group, which is traditionally critical of the regime in Khartoum, showed
half a dozen large craters, measuring more than 50-feet across.
Images from the same site prior to the blast showed some 40 shipping
containers prompting experts to speculate over what was being stored at the
site.
An Israeli military expert told the Associated Press that it was likely that
his country had identified an "imminent threat" at Yarmouk. Shlomo Brom, a
retired Brigadier General said that the strike may have been aimed at
destroying "a new category of weapons" due to be smuggled into Gaza. Such
weapons could include short range missiles more advanced than rockets
currently fired from the Strip or "something with air defence capability".
Security sources said the Yarmouk factory attack was a sophisticated
operation aided by a Gulfstream Jet loaded with electronic warfare outside
of Sudanese airspace which jammed the country's air defences. Fighter jets
reportedly refuelled after flying south along the Red Sea to evade Egyptian
air defences and then turned west to strike the factory.
Since Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, came to power in a coup backed by
Islamists in 1989, the government in Tehran has seen the Arab-led government
in Sudan as a useful ally in north-east Africa. According to Western
security reports Iran has used Sudan's vast territory as a corridor for
weapons to be smuggled into Egypt and on to Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist
group who govern the Gaza Strip.
Israel has previously bombed what it claimed were Iranian convoys in this
area three years ago. Katherine Zimmerman, an analyst with Critical Threats,
said the Yarmouk attack could be another strike against weapons smuggling
networks but "alternatively, it might be an early indicator of increasing
likelihood of conflict between Israel and Iran."
In this scenario last week's bombing may have been a pre-emptive strike to
deny arms to Iran's allies such as Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in
southern Lebanon. Both of these groups would be expected to strike Israeli
targets in the event of any future attack on Iran's nuclear programme.
The impact of the increasing confrontation between Iran and Israel over the
former's nuclear ambitions could further destabilise the conflict between
the Sudans. The former civil war foes returned to brink of an all-out war
earlier this year and recently signed a peace deal that some observers
regards as a temporary truce. No clear border has been demarcated between
the two countries and both governments accuse the others of backing armed
rebels inside their respective territories.
------------[ Sent via the dehai-wn mailing list by dehai.org]--------------
Received on Fri Nov 02 2012 - 18:31:55 EDT
