Israeli warships transit the Suez Canal

Jul 14, 2009, 14:32 GMT

Cairo - Two Israeli warships transited Egypt's Suez Canal on Tuesday, en route from the Israeli port of Haifa to the Red Sea, a source in Egypt's Suez Canal Authority said.

The ships, which were on their way for joint naval manoeuvres with the US Navy, paid 1.5 million dollars in transit fees, the source said, requesting anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

Last month, sources in the Suez Canal Authority said that an Israeli warship crossed the canal for the first time since Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty 30 years ago.

Responding to a question about the ships at a press conference in the Sinai resort city of Sharm al-Sheikh, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said traffic through the canal was governed by the Convention of Constantinople, signed by European powers and the Ottoman Empire in 1888 to guarantee passage through the Suez Canal.

'Egypt will not invent new conventions,' he said in remarks carried by Egypt's official Middle East News Agency.

According to the convention, Abul Gheit said, 'both civilian and military ships are allowed to cross the canal, as long as their passage follows what is known as the innocent right of crossing, which means that any military ship has the right to cross as long as it has no aggressive tendencies towards the owner of the Canal, which is Egypt.'

Abul Gheit did not elaborate, save to say that Egypt has an agreement with Israel and all members of the United Nations not to prevent their vessels from using the canal.

'The Israel Defence Forces do not usually comment on this kind of publication,' an Israeli military spokesman in Tel Aviv said.