Israel Matzav

Hezbullah terror cell arrested in Egypt, leader trained by Iran

This story has been all over our media all weekend, and Israelis don't quite know yet what to make of it. This past week, a large terror cell (variously reported at anywhere from 42-49 members) was arrested in Egypt and charged with smuggling arms to Hamas and with planning terror attacks within Egypt. On Sunday, the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Jarida reported that one of the central suspects in the case was trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

An Egyptian defense official revealed that Hizbullah operative Sami Shihab, who is a central suspect among the 49 men arrested by Egyptian authorities on Saturday, was trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Kuwaiti al-Jarida newspaper reported on Sunday.

According to the report, the detainees have admitted that a senior Hizbullah intelligence official overlooked the planning of terror attacks the group was meant to carry out on Egyptian soil.

The official reportedly told the Kuwaiti newspaper that top Hizbullah operative Muhammad Kablan worked to recruit activists and launch a training program in Egypt between the years 2007-2008.

The Jerusalem Post could not independently confirm the report.

The back and forth between Egypt and Iran has gotten quite nasty and Egypt may actually seek to issue an international arrest warrant for Hezbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah (pictured).

What this story confirms is that the primary threat to peace and stability in this region is not the 'Palestinian problem,' but rather the threat that Iran poses to all countries in the region. It shows, for example, the absurdity of this column in Sunday's Los Angeles Times, which suggests that the US ought to help Iran build a nuclear power plant, 'because we can't stop them anyway.'

Broke and busy in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. lacks the will and wherewithal to force Iran to forswear the bomb, and sanctions haven't cowed Tehran. The only realistic way to deter Iran today is to offer it something it might genuinely want. Would advanced nuclear energy, normal relations with the U.S., an end to sanctions and less tension with its neighbors be enough to interest Tehran? Would the Iranians accept a deal from Obama that they already rejected from Moscow? Is there anything they want more than to build a bomb?

Perhaps not. But if Tehran refused, it would lose whatever credibility remains to its claim that its nuclear ambitions are purely peaceful. It would also have to stop railing that the U.S. seeks to keep it technologically backward and excluded from the elite nuclear club.

And if it said yes, then next year when Iran again observes its annual "National Nuclear Technology Day," it would actually have something to celebrate.

Sorry, but no. Even if they went along with such an agreement, the Iranian regime and their terror surrogates in Gaza and Lebanon cannot be trusted. And if the US hasn't got the will to stop them, there are other countries that do have it.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:52 PM