Egypt, Israel debate limits on Sinai forces

LONDON - A provision in the U.S.-brokered 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt moved into sharp focus last week, putting senior Egyptian and Israeli officials at loggerheads over each country’s security responsibilities in the Sinai Peninsula after three terrorist bombs killed 34 persons, including 13 Israelis celebrating a Jewish holiday, on Egypt’s side of the border.

Yuval Steinitz, chairman of the Israeli Knesset’s powerful Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said Egypt was “partially responsible” for the Oct. 7 attacks because of its long-term laxity, although he acknowledged that the violence was damaging to Egypt’s tourism trade.

In a Washington Times interview, Mr. Steinitz went so far as to accuse Egypt of deliberately failing to prevent rampant arms and explosives smuggling in the past four years and suggested that Egypt was trying to destabilize Israel and sap its strength by encouraging Palestinian-Israeli bloodshed.

Osama El-Baz, chief adviser to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, rejected the charges as “malicious, bad-intentioned and false,” but said the accusations would not deflect Egypt from its commitment to combat terrorism.

Cairo authorities initially had tried to dismiss the bombings as explosions of cooking-gas canisters.

In cautious language, Mr. El-Baz offered to improve Egyptian-Israeli links for preventing terrorism.

“We believe we can improve things through some increased cooperation in certain areas,” he said.

The long-serving Egyptian adviser was quoted in the daily London Telegraph as saying, “Had we been able to have the army in Area C [where the three bombing occurred], it would have been easier for us to control entry to the area.”

Treaty troubles?

Under the 1979 treaty, the first between Israel and any Arab state, Egypt can deploy only lightly armed police in the strip of the Sinai Peninsula nearest the Israeli border called Zone C.

The three bomb attacks also injured scores of Israelis at the Taba Hilton hotel and two beachside snorkeling resorts near Israel’s southern border.

Mr. El-Baz, who was involved in negotiating the 1979 treaty as President Anwar Sadat’s chief foreign policy adviser, was quoted in Egypt’s authoritative Al-Ahram Weekly newspaper as saying that the Mubarak government wants to upgrade its security presence in the zone and the level of armament carried by forces deployed there without having to amend the 1979 treaty.

Mr. El-Baz also has orchestrated Egypt’s complex relationship with Israel and its Arab neighbors, sometimes phoning Israeli military chiefs and advisers to exchange information and express concerns.

However, Mr. Steinitz, the Knesset official, rejected any changes to the demilitarized zone.

Israel has pointed out that the 1979 treaty set no limit on the number of Egyptian police in the border zone and that the patrols are allowed to carry assault rifles and wear body armor. Egypt may use only “light boats, lightly armed,” to patrol the coastline near the vacation resorts frequented by many Israelis, the treaty’s provisions also stipulate.

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