WASHINGTON Ñ The United States seeks to replace military personnel
in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula with those from law enforcement and the civilian
sphere.
U.S. officials said the aim is to free American soldiers for combat
duties in other parts of the world. They said replacing U.S. troops in the
Sinai is a priority for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
"The secretary's poster child example, as you all know in this context
is the Sinai battalion," Defense Undersecretary David Chu said. "He's very
caustic about the fact that the United States some time ago agreed to
provide the support for the entire Sinai operation."
The United States has provided 965 military personnel to the Sinai
battalion, which was formed after Israel's withdrawal from the peninsula in
1982. Washington provides about half of the personnel for the monitoring and
peacekeeping force, Middle East Newsline reports.
Chu told a briefing on Monday that the Pentagon is examining a range of
measures to reduce the Sinai personnel as part of a larger overseas campaign
to reassess overseas military commitments. The undersecretary said the
Pentagon's first aim is to replace U.S. soldiers in Sinai who are now
fulfilling a support role for the entire peacekeeping operation.
"We do provide 700 personnel as part of the total to support everybody
else," Chu said. "Obviously when the Sinai battalion first went there there
was a real need. Now there's a high-class luxury resort, a beach down there
with people swimming and so forth, and the secretary's question is why are
we still here?"
Chu said the Pentagon has already replaced troops from the standing army
with those from the National Guard. He said a battalion of the 101st
Airborne had been scheduled to arrive in Sinai late last year. But after the
Sept. 11 suicide attacks on New York and Washington and the subsequent war
in Afghanistan, the Pentagon chose to deploy the
Arkansas National Guard.
Egypt and Israel have not opposed the replacement of U.S. personnel in
the Sinai battalion. But, citing regional tension, they have urged
Washington not to end U.S. deployment on the peninsula.
