Pat Dollard

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The Israel Navy was tracking two Iranian warships as they were set to make a rare crossing of the Suez Canal late Wednesday night.

The vessels were to cross into the Mediterranean Sea on their way to Syria. Defense officials said Israel would monitor them, although their presence in the sea would not change anything for the navy’s operational deployment.
“It is strange for the Iranian Navy to use the Suez Canal since it really doesn’t have anything to do in the Mediterranean Sea,” one official said.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman called the planned transit of the canal by the ships a “provocation that proves that the overconfidence of the Iranians is growing from day to day.”

Speaking at a meeting in Jerusalem of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Lieberman lashed out at the international community, which he said was not doing enough to confront Iranian provocations.

He also said he expected the world to “put the Iranians in their place. We are the true allies of the United States in the region, and the only ones that share its values. The international community needs to understand that Israel will not be able to ignore these provocations forever.”

Defense Minister Ehud Barak held discussions late Wednesday with some of his foreign counterparts to update them about the arrival of the Iranian warships in the region.

The Egyptian body that runs the Suez Canal denied the claim that the Iranian ships were passing through.

Ahmed el-Manakhli, head of the canal operations room, said that warships must get permission 48 hours before crossing, and “so far, we have not been notified.”

In Washington, the Pentagon declined to comment.
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