Wednesday 22 April 2009

Egypt brings charges against Beirut


Egypt brings charges against Beirut

Egypt has accused the Lebanese government of collaborating with Hezbollah allegedly to destabilize the country.

Egypt arrested 49 people in early April, accusing Hezbollah of recruiting the group to mastermind terror acts in the country.

Constantly changing the allegations, the country later accused the group of planning to carry out a massive bomb attack in Tel Aviv.

Cairo now alleges that Lebanese authorities have provided the group's members with false passports to facilitate the group's operations in the country, the London-based pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat reported on Tuesday, citing Egyptian sources.

"Egypt will file an official request to Lebanon demanding to open investigations of serious deviations," mostly over the Lebanese authority's "conspiracy" in helping the “Hezbollah cell” in the country, the sources were quoted as saying.

They claimed that official Lebanese stamps were placed to mark approval on forged documents for a group arrested over alleged links to Hezbollah.

The latest reports have also claimed that the group was in cahoots with an Egyptian opposition group-- the Muslim Brotherhood-- and other Arab groups to stage a coup against the Egyptian government.

Having dismissed the allegations, Hezbollah said the recent campaign was "politically motivated and will result in a backlash against the Egyptian regime."

The accusations brought against Hezbollah come after the Lebanese movement criticized the country for its performance during the 22-day Israeli war in the Gaza Strip

Egypt kept the Rafah border-crossing -- Gaza's only border that bypasses Israel -- closed even to the injured during the war on Gaza. The Israeli war killed at least 1,350 Palestinians.

Source

Posted by JNOUBIYEH at 8:43 AM

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