CAIRO — Egypt plans to deploy nearly 3,000 troops in eastern Sinai
along the borders with Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Egyptian officials said the regime of President Hosni Mubarak has
approved a plan for increased deployment in eastern Sinai in late 2005. They
said the plan has been submitted to but not endorsed by Israel.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abu Al Gheit said the deployment would
take place in two stages. In the first stage, Egypt would deploy 750
commandos along the eight-kilometer Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip.
In the second stage, Al Gheit said, Egypt would deploy another 1,500 to
2,000 troops along more than 200-kilometer-long Egyptian-Israeli border. He
said the deployment would facilitate the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza
Strip.
"We are talking about 1,500 to 2,000 [Egyptian troops] on the
Egyptian-Israeli part of the border," Al Gheit said. "On the
Egyptian-Palestinian part of the border we are talking about another 750
people. That is subject to the understandings that we are trying to reach
with the Israelis. We are not yet fully there."
Al Gheit did not specify the mission of the Egyptian troops, who under
the plan would be supplied with helicopters, armored personnel carriers and
heavy weapons. Israel has called on Egypt to increase efforts to stop the
smuggling of drugs, weapons and prostitutes along the borders with Israel
and the PA.
For nearly a year, Egypt has been discussing the proposed deployment in
eastern Sinai with the Israeli government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Under the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, Cairo has been limited to the
deployment of lightly-armed civilian police in eastern Sinai.
"We have to assure the Israelis that the Egyptian-Palestinian border is
under the strict control of Egypt on the Egyptian side and of Palestine on
the Palestinian side," Al Gheit told the World Economic Conference in Jordan
on May 21. "There we are ready to deploy strong enough forces to control
that part of the border."
