skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Labels:
Egypt»
Mubarak»
Sinai
Israel has authorized additional violations of the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty by allowing more Egyptian troops to take up positions in the Sinai.
The Egyptian army has deployed hundreds of additional soldiers to the northern Sinai Peninsula to guard a pipeline that carries natural gas to Israel, Egyptian security officials said Thursday.
An Israeli defense official said Jerusalem had agreed to the deployment, which followed a February 5 explosion at a gas terminal in the area that disrupted the flow of gas to Israel and Jordan. Security officials said a bomb had caused the blast at the el- Arish terminal, while Egypt’s natural gas company said it had been caused by a gas leak.
The troop deployment is in addition to the roughly 800 troops Israel agreed to let Egypt move to north Sinai in late January for the first time since the countries made peace three decades ago. Under the 1979 peace treaty, Israel returned the captured Sinai to Egypt, and in return, Egypt agreed to leave the area demilitarized.
The Egyptian security officials said the soldiers had been taking up positions along the line since Tuesday.
And if Egypt decides to abrogate the treaty, how are we going to get those troops out of there? What could go wrong?
