CAIRO AND JERUSALEM — There's no sneaking a warship through the Suez Canal, so it's best to sail through and remain coy.
Israel has done just that. At least two of its missile-class Saar 5 warships and a Dolphin submarine have sailed through the canal in recent weeks, prompting conjecture about Israel's intentions. Possible scenarios include the sending of a message to Iran about Israeli military might and giving the impression that Israel and Egypt, which controls the Suez, are closely cooperating against regional security threats.
The Israeli government has said little about why the vessels were on missions that took them through the Suez, but they come as Israel has grown insistent on stopping Iran's nuclear program. That fits in with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's attempts to link the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with agreements from Arab states to help Israel counter Iran.
The two warships -- the Eilat and the Hanit -- sailed through the Suez toward the Red Sea this month, reportedly to participate in maneuvers with U.S. forces and to prevent smuggled arms from reaching the Gaza Strip. The submarine, believed capable of carrying nuclear warheads, went through the canal in late June to take part in a naval drill.
Israeli analysts drew broader implications and suggested that Israel could use the canal to quickly reach the Persian Gulf and Iranian waters. Writing on the Ynet news website after the Dolphin deployment, Israeli defense expert Ron Ben-Yishai suggested that the mission "attests to the improvement in Israel's and Egypt's strategic relationship.
"The Obama administration should note with satisfaction the passage of an Israeli submarine through the Suez Canal and see it as proof that its efforts to bring regional cooperation to fend off the Iranian threat are beginning to bear fruit," he wrote.
Egypt didn't see it that way, at least not publicly. Cairo, which signed the Camp David accords and the Israel-Egypt peace treaty in the late 1970s, has been fending off Arab criticism for years that it is too close to U.S. and Israeli interests. But, like Israel, Egypt is wary of Iran's nuclear aspirations and has been angered by Tehran's influence with the Islamic militant groups Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Egypt and Iran have been attempting to repair relations, yet Cairo is far from trusting a government it regards as wanting to undermine its stature in the Middle East.
