Israel: No more Egypt troops in Sinai

A file photo of an Israeli military convoy along the Egyptian border

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/164075.html

Israel has refused a request by Egyptian authorities for the deployment of additional military forces to Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, a report says.

Fearing a complete breakdown of the peace treaty with Cairo, Tel Aviv has for the second time refused Egypt's request for more troops in Sinai, the Israel daily newspaper JPost reported on its website on Monday.

“We do not want it to seem as if the peace treaty is meaningless, particularly at a time when there could be a regime change in Egypt, which could renounce the treaty altogether,” the report quoted an unnamed military official as saying.

According to the source, Israel will not allow a complete breach of the treaty even in the event of regime change in troubled Egypt.

Meanwhile, the US Army's Aviation Regiment recently mobilized for deployment to Sinai in order to back the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) overseeing the Egypt-Israel peace treaty.

The MFO is an international peacekeeping force overseeing the terms of the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.

Under the 1979 treaty, Israel returned Sinai to Egypt and Cairo agreed to leave the peninsula demilitarized.

The recent revolution protests in Egypt against the embattled President Hosni Mubarak's regime, an Israeli ally, has caused serious concerns in Tel Aviv which fears the instigation of an Islamic establishment in the Arab world's most populous country.