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Israeli submarine enters Suez Canal for first time

By on Monday, July 6th, 2009

Jerusalem: An Israeli submarine used the Suez Canal for the first time recently to get to military exercises in the Red Sea, a paper said on Sunday, 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, Israel's biggest-selling newspaper said.

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

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 programme, 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."

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