Berlin - Germany is at the ready to send four border police
experts to Egypt with equipment to detect secret tunnels under the
border to the Gaza Strip, a senior official said in Berlin on Monday.
Israel's invasion of Gaza was aimed at stopping a bombardment by
rockets which are mainly smuggled into Gaza via the tunnels.
August Hanning, a state secretary at the Interior Ministry, said
Egypt had asked for the detection equipment and technical skills.
The team would comprise two technicians and two border monitoring
specialists, and would probably be accompanied by a Foreign Office
official. Together with Egyptian counterparts, they would do a survey
of the tunnels.
It had been agreed with Egypt that the assistance would be ready
to go whenever Cairo gave the word.
'We are ready to send our delegation to Egypt at a moment's
notice,' Hanning said.
In a related development, a newspaper reported German Foreign
Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier forwarded a proposal Monday to key
parties for a five-phase plan to ensure the violence does not resume.
Steinmeier has paid two visits to the region since the crisis
erupted.
The European Union would be active in all five stages, beginning
with humanitarian aid, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper said.
The donors would pay for medicine, food, emergency shelter and
fuel for poor Gazans. The next step would be to prevent arms
smuggling into Gaza, with the German experts playing a key role.
Further stages would be re-opening border crossings,
reconstructing wrecked parts of Gaza and proceeding to a resumption
of the full peace process.
Germany has taken the diplomatic initiative before the
administration of Barack Obama takes office in Washington.
The newspaper said the plan had been checked in advance with EU
foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Czech Foreign Minister Karel
Schwarzenberg. Prague is currently exercising the EU presidency, but
has not objected to Germany moving to centre stage.
The newspaper said Steinmeier aimed to help the Palestinian
Authority regain influence in Gaza from Hamas. The Authority would
play a key role in an international conference of donors.
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