A battle between two long arms

The shadow-boxing between Israel and Iran moves from Gaza to SudanGIVEN the ferocity of Israels onslaught on the Islamist militants of Hamas in the Gaza Strip in the first three weeks of January, it stands to reason that Israel would also be doing everything in its power to stop them getting more weapons. Only now is a murky story emerging of how far (about 1,400km, or 870 miles) Israel was prepared to go. Who needs to know, knows, said Ehud Olmert, Israels outgoing prime minister, thereby tacitly confirming a flurry of media reports that Israeli aircraft and/or unmanned drones had destroyed a convoy of 23 lorries carrying Iranian arms destined for Hamas in mid-January in north-east Sudan. After some confusion, the Sudanese government admitted that such an attack, probably by Israel, had indeed taken place just north of Port Sudan on the Red Sea. Exotic but unverifiable claims in various media aver that Israels Mossad intelligence service got a tip that the arms were going to be smuggled into the Gaza Strip via Sudan and Egypt; that Israels air force had only a few days to prepare its raid; and that 40 or so people in the convoy, including Iranians, may have been killed.