Sudan to complain to UN over Israeli airstrike

PanARMENIAN.Net - Sudan has said it intends to complain to the UN over an explosion at an arms factory that it claims was caused by an Israeli air strike, BBC News reported.

Sudan's UN envoy Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman said Israel had violated Sudanese air space three times in recent years.

The Sudanese have not revealed any evidence to support their claim, and Israel has not commented.

Sudanese sources told the BBC that the arms factory was believed to have been operated by the Iranians.

The factory is thought to have manufactured rockets and other munitions for Iran to transfer weapons to Hamas by an overland route.

The Israelis believe there is a well-used smuggling route running northwards to Egypt, into Sinai and then on to the Gaza Strip.

Leaked US state department documents three years ago also suggested that Sudan was secretly supplying Iranian arms to Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

So Israel might have felt that stopping the arms flow at its source in Sudan was better than taking action that could upset Egypt, according to BBC News.

Although Israel has not commented on the incident, one defence official told army radio on Wednesday that Sudan was a "dangerous terrorist state".

In April 2011, Khartoum held Israel responsible for an air strike that killed two people in a car near the city of Port Sudan.