Egyptian businessman accused of spying for Jewish state CAIRO: The confessions of an Egyptian accused of spying for Israel has led to three espionage cells being dismantled in Lebanon and Syria, where an agent was executed in November, Cairo newspapers said Friday. Tareq Abdul Razzak, the 37-year-old owner of an import-export business, is accused of having spied for the Jewish state together with two wanted Israelis. Egypt, which has a 1979 peace treaty with Israel, informed Lebanon and Syria of his activities in recruiting agents after Abdul Razzak's arrest in May, Al-Masri newspaper said, quoting a security source close to the investigation. The suspect has allegedly confessed his two Israeli contacts had tasked him with making visits to Damascus with a fake passport and identity under the guise of business trips. The aim of the missions was to deliver sums of money to a Syrian holding a “sensitive” post with the security services. Al-Shuruk daily said Abdul Razzak has provided investigators with copies of reports he had passed on to Israeli intelligence from a Syrian chemist working for the security services in connection with a Syrian nuclear programme. The Syrian expert had been spying for Israel for 13 years, according to the confessions. He was executed in Syria last month, said Al-Shuruk, which did not give sources for its report. On Sept. 6, 2007, Israel launched an air raid on northern Syria that destroyed an alleged secret nuclear reactor. Cairo newspapers also said Abdul Razzak had tried in vain to recruit the editor-in-chief, Charles Ayoub, of Lebanon's Ad-Diyar daily which is close to Syria and the Iranian-backed Shiite movement Hezbollah. Ad-Diyar in an editorial Friday said that Ayoub had been approached by Razzak who offered his help in preparing a documentary on Arab issues but had been turned down. – Agence France
