Egypt Sends Tanks, Warplanes to Sinai to Fight Militants

AntiWar
Jason Ditz

Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi seems to be in the ultimate no-win situation tonight. Pressed by both Israel and the US to get more involved militarily in the Sinai Peninsula, which is under Egyptian control, he is sending warplanes, tanks and troopsto fight militants.

But while throwing the military at any problem is seemingly the US-approved solution for allies, officials are up in arms against Mursi,accusing him of violating the treaty with Israel by sending troops to fight anti-Israel militants, and demanding that the US withdraw all foreign aid to Egypt in retaliation.
Under the Camp David Accords, the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, Egypt can only send additional troops to Sinai and engage in military operations there if it obtains an Israeli imprimatur. Israel had confirmed the first offensives were approved.

Now, they’re conspicuously silent on the matter, neither confirming nor denying that Egypt’s escalations in Sinai, which are seemingly exactly what they wanted in the first place, were officially approved. That uncertainty seems to be enough to spawn a new round of railing against Mursi, though the condemnation seems to be as much about sidelining the military junta as about the deployment.

Netanyahu Tells Egypt: Keep Tanks out of Sinai

IsraelNationalNews
Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

Netanyahu has demanded that Egypt cease sending tanks into the Sinai without approval, a “blatant violation” of the 1979 peace treaty.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has demanded that Egypt cease sending tanks into the Sinai without Israel's approval, a “blatant violation” of the 1979 peace treaty, the Maariv Hebrew-language website reported Tuesday.

Mark Regev, spokesman for the Office of the Prime Minister, told Arutz Sheva, “We are not commenting” on the report.

An Egyptian newspaper reported that local Bedouin claimed that Egypt already has sent dozens of tanks to the northern Sinai, near the Israeli border. The report has not been confirmed, and most other media outlets have reported that Egypt is preparing to send in tanks, planes and additional soldiers to combat rampant terror.

Al Qaeda-linked terror cells, Bedouin and Hamas terrorists have taken control of the Sinai Peninsula in recent years, particularly since the end of the Mubarak regime.

A source close to Prime Minister Netanyahu told Maariv the planned buildup, if it already has not taken place, is “a blatant violation of the peace treaty.”

The Obama administration wields influence over Egypt because of its $1.3 billion annual aid to Cairo, and the office of Prime Minister Netanyahu has appealed to the White House to pressure Egypt to stop the deployment.

Israel knows that it is to its benefit if the new Egyptian regime can defeat terrorists in the area, but it also fears that Egypt will not be successful and that terrorists could gain possession of tanks.

Another concern is that Egypt would maintain its new military presence for an unlimited amount of time and establish “facts on the ground: that would represent a de facto change in terms of the treaty, which requires Israeli approval for additional forces.

An unstated concern of almost every Israeli who remembers the Yom Kippur War is that a renewed Egyptian military presence in the Sinai could set the stage for another war, especially if Iran or Hizbullah attacks from the north.

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi is scheduled to visit Iran next week to re-establish ties with Tehran, despite the objections of the United States.

Former Obama administration Middle East envoy Dennis Ross wrote in The Washington Post Monday that the U.S. must make clear to Egypt that if it continues to violate its commitments under the Camp David Accords, it would jeopardize its U.S. funding.

Ross said that Egypt's current rulers, the Muslim Brotherhood, must “come to terms with reality,” that they were committed to the Accords. He said that the denial by Egyptian President Morsi that he had responded to a letter of congratulations sent to him by President Shimon Peres, and the attempt by the Muslim Brotherhood to blame the Mossad for the Sinai terror attack, prove that the group cannot tolerate any circumstances that contradicts its philosophy.

Report: Israel moves tanks to Egypt border

Occupied Palestine

TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma’an) — Israel’s army moved military tanks towards the country’s border with Egypt on Monday, after an earlier cross-border attack killed a man working on Israel’s barrier on the frontier, Israeli media reported.

Israeli news site Ynet said the unusual move to deploy tanks on the border was in breach of the Camp David peace treaty between the countries, which requires the area to remain demilitarized.

The tanks were later withdrawn from the area, and the Israeli army said the move was in response to the attack earlier Monday, and it has no plans to leave tanks on the border, Israeli daily Haaretz said.

Israel and Egypt had agreed in recent months that Cairo could deploy 20 tanks near the border to ward off Bedouin attacks, despite the demilitarization clause of the peace treaty, Ynet reported.

The 1978 Camp David Accords led to Egypt’s 1979 peace treaty with Israel, the first by an Arab country.

Earlier Monday, militants fired on an Israeli crew building a border barrier on the Egyptian frontier on Monday, killing a Palestinian citizen of Israel, and Israeli soldiers shot dead two of the infiltrators, the military said.

The incident, hours after Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood claimed victory in the country’s presidential election — disputed by the rival candidate — raised Israeli concern about lawlessness in Egypt’s Sinai desert since the fall of Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

“We can see a disturbing deterioration in Egypt’s control of the Sinai’s security,” Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said, commenting on the attack.

“We are waiting for the election results. Whoever wins, we expect him to take responsibility over all of Egypt’s international commitments,” he told reporters in a reference to Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel.

Egypt extends olive branch to Iran; seeks to normalize ties

International Business Times

Nabil Al-Arabi

Egypt extends olive branch to Iran; seeks to normalize ties Egypt’s new foreign minister Nabil Al-Arabi has said that his country also would like to turn over a new leaf with respect to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

"Iran is a state in the region, and we have had long-term historical ties with it over the different periods," al-Arabi told a press conference. "We will turn over a new leaf with all states, including Iran."

Al-Arabi cautioned that restoring diplomatic ties will depend on the Iranian side.

Iranian’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has welcomed Egypt’s statements and said that better relations would improve security in the Middle East. He added that he hopes there will be "an expansion of relations" between Cairo and Tehran.

Salehi also indicated that "despite the ups and downs, the historical ties between the two countries have been sustained."

Iran and Egypt have not had formal diplomatic relations since the 1979 Iranian Revolution when the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was given exile in Cairo by his friend Egyptian president Anwar Sadat.

A year before that, Iran ended diplomatic ties with Egypt when Sadat signed the Camp David peace treaty with Israel.

More recently, Iran has been blamed by Egypt for using Syria and Hezbollah to expand its influence in the Arab world.

Iran’s President Nabil Al-Arabi viewed former president Hosni Mubarak as too closely allied with the U.S. and Israel.

Asked about Hezbollah, al-Arabi responded: "Hezbollah is part of Lebanon's composition, and we see this as an internal matter… If any party wishes to have ties with Egypt there will be nothing preventing us from talking, but we will not become involved in internal matters."

In 2010, Egyptian security forces arrested dozens of men connected to Hezbollah and convicted them of planning a terrorist campaign in Egypt. Twenty-six of the defendants were sentenced to very long prison terms.

Al-Arabi is widely known to be anti-Israel and has suggested the Jewish nation be tried for genocide.