Hezbollah Terror Cell Arrested in Egypt

Last week, Egyptian authorities arrested a Hezbollah cell in Egypt that it they say had been plotting a terrorist attack. 

Smadar Peri reported in Yediot Acharonoth:

The crisis between Egypt and Hizbullah is worsening, and this weekend the two parties raised the bar on their verbal recriminations to new levels. In the meantime, Egyptian authorities arrested 15 rocket makers, seized large quantities of weaponry and munitions in a rocket-building factory in Sinai and confiscated USD 2 million that were earmarked for financing terrorism in the Gaza Strip.

In the wake of the discovery of the terror ring that Hizbullah was operating in Egypt, Hizbullah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah admitted that Hani Shihab, the head of the terror ring who is under arrest in Egypt, had been sent and handled by Hizbullah. "I am neither dodging or fleeing from responsibility," said Nasrallah, who charged that contrary to the Egyptians' allegations as if 49 activists had been captured, Hizbullah had only ten agents operating in Egypt. Brother Hani is a Hizbullah activist who volunteered to help Hamas in Gaza by facilitating on transports in order to strengthen the war against the Zionist enemy."

Officials in Cairo heard Nasrallah's statements and responded furiously. A senior Egyptian official warned Nasrallah that "Egypt isn't a hotel without a doorman," and "you won't dare do here what you did in Lebanon." Nasrallah's denials as if Hizbullah had had any intention to commit terror attacks in Egypt but, rather, had only intended to extend logistical assistance to Hamas via the tunnels, were rejected vehemently by Egyptian government spokesmen.

While President Mubarak and top security and intelligence officials in Egypt have not spoken publicly about the affair, a source in Cairo said yesterday that Egypt was taking steps to define Hizbullah in international institutions as a terror organization and that it would demand Nasrallah's extradition in order to prosecute him.

The tone taken against Nasrallah in the newspaper editorials became far more pugnacious. He was dubbed by those editorials as "the number one agent" and "the Iranian collaborator." The Egyptian daily Al-Gumhuriya noted that Nasrallah was "far worse and more dangerous than Israel," adding scornfully that the Hizbullah secretary-general was "the ayatollahs' parrot.