05/07/2009 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 Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot said.
 
Previously Israeli submarines rounded the whole of Africa to get to exercises in the Red Sea, Israel's biggest-selling newspaper said. The Israeli daily said that with the move "Egypt and Israel wanted to show their coordination in the face of Iran pursuing its nuclear program."
 
Meanwhile, an anonymous Egyptian security source denied the report saying that there is no military cooperation between Tel Aviv and Cairo stressing that Egypt would never cooperate with Israel against any strike on Iran.
 
Israel, widely considered to be the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear power with more than 200 nuclear heads, suspects Iran of trying to build atomic weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear program, a charge Tehran has vehemently denied saying it is its right under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) while Israel is not a signatory for this treaty.