Headlines, Human Rights, Middle East & North Africa

MIDEAST: Big Powers Moving In on Gaza

Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa Al-Omrani

CAIRO, Apr 3 2009 (IPS) - Nine NATO member states agreed last month to utilise naval, intelligence and diplomatic resources to combat the alleged flow of arms into the Gaza Strip. Some Egyptian commentators see the move as a surreptitious means of cementing foreign control over the region.

“These new protocols aren’t really about halting arms smuggling,” Tarek Fahmi, political science professor at Cairo University and head of the Israel desk at the Cairo-based National Centre for Middle East Studies, told IPS. “Rather, they aim to establish foreign control over the region’s strategic border crossings and maritime ports.”

On Mar. 13, a major conference was held in London aimed at “coordinating efforts” to stop alleged arms smuggling – by land or sea – into the Gaza Strip, governed by Palestinian resistance faction Hamas. Participants at the conference included high-level representatives from nine member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), including the U.S., Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Italy and Norway.

At the close of the event, participants signed an agreement “to develop an effective framework for international cooperation, supplementary to measures taken by regional states, to prevent and interdict the illicit flow of arms, ammunition and weapons components to Gaza.”

According to a final statement, participant governments hope to accomplish these objectives with the use of a series of measures, including “maritime interception, information sharing and diplomatic pressure.” The international community “has a responsibility to support prevention and interdiction efforts,” the statement reads, noting that such efforts may involve “diplomatic, military, intelligence and law enforcement components.”

The London conference follows an earlier meeting devoted to the same issue held in Denmark in early February. A third, follow-up meeting is expected to be held in Canada in April to “work out details” of the pact, according to diplomats close to the talks.

Although Egypt reportedly received an invitation to attend the London gathering, it disdained to send a delegate. Palestinian representation, too – from either Hamas or the U.S.-backed Palestinian Authority – was conspicuously absent. Israeli officials, meanwhile, reportedly attended the meeting as “observers”.

Shortly afterwards, Mark Regev, spokesman for outgoing Israeli PM Ehud Olmert, lauded the agreement. “The principle is clear – the international community will act to prevent the transfer of weapons,” he was quoted as saying.

But Egyptian analysts say the agreement represents a furtive attempt to “internationalise” the longstanding siege of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

Since early 2006 – when Hamas won an outright majority in Palestinian legislative elections – Israel and Egypt have kept their borders with the Gaza Strip tightly sealed to passengers and goods, despite an increasingly desperate need for basic supplies among the territory’s 1.5 million inhabitants. The humanitarian situation has deteriorated further since Israel’s three-week-long onslaught against the strip two months ago, in which more than 1,400 Palestinians were killed and vast swathes of infrastructure destroyed.

“These anti-smuggling conferences are a new and underhanded way of targeting the Palestinian resistance,” Gamal Mazloum, expert in military affairs and retired Egyptian army general, told IPS. “While the U.S. provides Israel with advanced military hardware free of charge, it wants to completely deprive the Palestinians of any weapons at all with which to defend themselves.”

The Denmark and London conferences come on the heels of an earlier U.S.- Israel security pact, signed in mid-January only days before the departure of then U.S. president George W. Bush.

Like the recent anti-smuggling conferences, the agreement outlined general procedures aimed at stopping alleged weapons smuggling into the Gaza Strip. The document also commits Washington to “accelerate its efforts to provide logistical and technical assistance and to train and equip regional security forces in counter-smuggling tactics.”

Egypt, however, which shares a 14-kilometre border with the embattled territory, rejected the accord as an infringement on its national sovereignty. “When it comes to Egyptian land, we are not bound by anything except the safety and national security of the Egyptian people and Egypt’s ability to protect its borders,” Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul-Gheit told reporters at the time.

Independent Egyptian commentators also harshly criticised the U.S.-Israeli agreement.

“Even though Egypt shares a border with Gaza, it was not a party to this security pact,” said Fahmi. “What’s more, a close reading of the document shows it is not in Egypt’s interests and could even end up providing Israel with access to intelligence on Washington’s Arab allies.

“Similarly, Egypt wasn’t involved in the recent anti-smuggling conferences in Europe, which were convened – in the absence of any Arab participation – with the express purpose of establishing foreign control over the region’s strategic border crossings and maritime ports,” added Fahmi.

Mazloum agreed that the international pact signed recently in London was less about fighting arms smuggling and more about the realisation of geo- strategic objectives.

“Foreign submarines and destroyers have been covertly plying the waters of the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea and the Suez Canal for a long time,” said Mazloum. “With this new protocol, though, these western states want to formalise this presence.”

According to diplomats close to the talks, only “non-coercive” methods will be brought to bear against arms smuggling. Under the terms of the agreement, for example, maritime vessels suspected of carrying contraband can only be boarded for inspection with express permission from the vessel’s captain.

Mazloum, however, was not reassured by the ostensibly “non-coercive” nature of the agreement. “These voluntary, supposedly non-coercive inspections will no doubt, over time, become compulsory,” he said.

“The West, along with Israel, is attempting to establish regional domination on multiple fronts,” said Fahmi. “The plan to redraw the map of the Middle East – from Sudan and Somalia to Palestine and Iraq – is progressing apace, and the hopelessly divided Arabs appear unable to do anything about it.”