From DefenseNews

 

Israel Subs Use Suez Canal for 1st Time: Report

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Published: 5 Jul 2009 13:32

 

JERUSALEM - An Israeli submarine used the Suez Canal for the first time recently to get to military exercises in the Red Sea, a newspaper reported July 5, adding the move was aimed as a message to arch-foe Iran.

 

The Dolphine submarine entered the canal that connects the Mediterranean and the Red seas during the day and was escorted by Egyptian navy vessels sometime in June, the Yediot Aharonot daily said.

 

Previously Israeli submarines rounded the whole of Africa to get to exercises in the Red Sea, Yediot Aharonot reported.

 

The daily said that with the move "Egypt and Israel wanted to show their coordination in the face of Iran pursuing its nuclear program."

 

No comment on the report was immediately available from either Israeli or Egyptian officials.

 

Israel, widely considered to be the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear power, suspects Iran of trying to build atomic weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear program, a charge Tehran has vehemently denied.

 

The Jewish state sees the Islamic republic as its top enemy following repeated assertions by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Israel is doomed to be "wiped off the map."

From Jane's

 

Iran threat steers Israeli navigation of Red Sea

By Alon Ben-David

08 July 2009

 

An Israel Navy (IN) Dolphin-class (Type 800) attack submarine has crossed the Suez Canal for the first time and conducted manoeuvres in the Red Sea that are widely perceived to be another signal to Iran about Israeli intentions.

 

The IN has until now been reluctant to send the nuclear-capable submarines into the Red Sea, since in passing through the shallow Suez Canal they are exposed to the possibility of attacks from shore.

 

A defence source told Jane's on 6 July that the manoeuvres, which began in mid-June, involved a drill in the Red Sea by the Leviathan , which returned to its Haifa base on 5 July. The vessel had been seen docking at the IN base in Eilat in late June.

 

The manoeuvres are also significant as the latest sign of deepening ties with Egypt, because of the need to co-ordinate with Cairo before the exercises could proceed. The two countries have intensified their co-operation since November 2008, when Israeli intelligence unveiled a plot by the Lebanese guerrilla movement Hizbullah to target attacks against Egyptian and Israeli government sites.

 

The three Dolphin-class submarines are considered a major Israeli strategic asset, believed capable of launching nuclear-tipped, long-range cruise missiles.