Israeli officials: Egypt halted steel wall constructions after Mubarak’s ouster

Israeli officials: Egypt halted steel wall constructions after Mubarak’s ouster

Egypt has suspended construction of an underground steel wall along the Egypt-Gaza border that it had been building over the past year in an effort to stop smuggling weaponry through tunnels into the Gaza Strip," the United press has quoted the defence officials as saying to the Jerusalem Post.
 
Construction of the 6.2-mile barrier was suspended after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in February, the newspaper reported.
 
Israel has called on the new Egyptian government to uphold the position of the previous government in preventing the flow of arms into the Gaza Strip, officials said.
 
Some Israeli officials said halting the construction was not coincidental. They stressed Egypt has been trying to strengthen ties with Hamas and cited a recent visit by Hamas’ Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar to Cairo, where he met with Egyptian politicians as well as intelligence and military officials, as evidence of the improving relationship.
 
"There is a new relationship between Hamas and Cairo today. This is likely connected to the upcoming elections and the understanding in Egypt that the Muslim Brotherhood is a strong player and as a result it is important to maintain contacts with Hamas," one official told the UPI.