What’s Iran up to in Egypt?

For those watching the situation in the Middle East, there’s a very disturbing report out of Egypt today. The Ares blog of Aviation Week & Space Technology reports:

A battle is currently raging between Egyptian security forces, backed by armor and helicopters, trying to smash secret bases in Central Sinai, set up by a joint clandestine operation between Al Qaeda and Iranian-sponsored Hezbollah. Iran’s intelligence and security service, and Al-Quds, an elite unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards whose mission is to assist Shi’ite militias and organizations throughout the world, have deployed “sleeper cells” of agents, who are activated on call from Tehran.

. . .

As early as last year, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Iran had created an ‘Islamic republic’ in Egypt’s backyard, referring to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Their next objective clearly seemed Egypt proper. Jordan, also viewed as central to what has been described as the Arab world’s moderate Sunni axis, is facing a similar effort by an Iranian sponsored terror network. In both cases, intelligence chiefs in Amman and Cairo realized that Iran, operating subversive elements by proxy, was stirring the cauldron.

. . .

By planting logistical and intelligence gathering cells at strategic locations, Iran would plan linking up with their established clandestine cells already operating out of Somalia and Sudan opposite the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. Tehran’s official strategy wishes to provide Iran with an outer safety belt, but the same strategy could well serve in its offensive mode against Sunni nations, like Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Egypt. The recent reports of the mysterious arms smuggling convoys attacked in the Sudan desert, on their way to Egypt, may indicate what is already shaping up in the Shiite Mullah plans to outflank both Sunni Saudi Arabia and Egypt, in what Israel’s President Shimon Peres said this week: “Sooner or later, the world will realize that Iran wishes to take over the Middle East, the conflict between an Arab-Sunni Middle East and an Iranian minority that wants to conquer it is inevitable”.

There’s more at the link.

This is very worrying. I wonder why we’ve not heard of the fighting in the Sinai Peninsula from mainstream news sources as yet? Is it being kept quiet, to avoid giving too much publicity to the radicals? And what are the implications for the US? This goes much further than anti-Israeli activity. If Iran and its proxies can affect the Suez Canal, it’ll have a drastic effect on the world economy, quite apart from their regional impact. Furthermore, this could destabilize Iraq once more, and undo all the good work the US military has done there over the past two years.

This will bear watching.

Peter