Egyptian-Palestinian borders under full control: FM

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said Tuesday the Egyptian-Palestinian borders is under full control of the Egyptian border guard and police forces from one side and the Palestinian Authority from the other, the official news agency MENA reported.

Abul Gheit said no essential change has taken place along the borders and Egypt is exercising full control on its borders.

Asked about reports saying Israel planned to shell Philadelphi border passage because there were tunnels for smuggling weapons through it, Abul Gheit said, "we cannot accept such a kind of shelling and such an act would be totally against the international law."

"How can a foreign country be allowed to attack lands not under its control?" Abul Gheit was quoted by MENA as saying.

"If such an act took place, it would be a breach of the Palestinian-Israeli agreements and a thing that we cannot accept or let pass easily," he said.

Abul Gheit said Egypt is working on developing the competence of its troops to secure the borders.

"From day to the other we discover that some European women crossed the borders from Egypt to Israel, that Africans infiltrate to Israel across the borders to work there and that drugs are being smuggled from the Israeli side to Egypt. All these require securing Egypt's borders and raising the efficiency of the current troops," he said, quoted by MENA.

"If this will mean having more security towers, more vehicles or more patrols, so let it be," he said.

Abul Gheit said the Israelis are just exaggerating matters to give themselves an excuse to attack the Palestinians. "They say that there are about 11 tunnels and my belief is that they are exaggerating," he said.

He also denied reports by Israel media on Egypt's responsibility for attempts to smuggle weapons into the Palestinian territories.

All attempts to build tunnels start from the Palestinian side as digging starts there first, Abul Gheit said, stressing that Egypt firmly acts against any discovered tunnel.

Abul Gheit's remarks came one day after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak denied press reports claiming that Egypt had deployed 5,000 additional police troops along its borders with Gaza Strip.

"The reports are completely groundless," Mubarak told a meeting of lawmakers from his ruling National Democratic Party.

Some media reports said earlier that about 5,000 Egyptian state security police fanned out near the Egypt-Gaza border to strengthen security level in the area after reports that Israel might drop "smart bombs" on suspected smuggling tunnels.

On Friday, the Israeli Maariv daily reported that Israel might use "smart" bombs on the border between Egypt and Gaza Strip to destroy tunnels used to smuggle weapons from Egypt into the Palestinian territory.

Source: Xinhua