Egyptian army figures respond to reports that US is reconsidering its presence in Sinai

After the Associated Press reported Wednesday that United States peacekeeping forces are potentially considering pulling out of the turbulent Sinai Peninsula, sources from the Egyptian military voiced their anger and skepticism about the move.

US President Barak Obama’s administration is “quietly reviewing the future of America's three-decade deployment to Egypt's Sinai Peninsula,” AP said in the Wednesday article, fearing that “the lightly equipped peacekeepers could be targets of escalating Islamic State-inspired violence.”

Although the story noted that the US is also considering shipping more arms to its forces, local players have been focused on the potential for withdrawal as a likely violation of a decades-old treaty between Egypt and Israel.

Such a withdrawal would be “irrational,” and the threat is an attempt to “twist Egypt’s arm,” Major General Adel al-Omda, a member of the Council for Foreign Affairs, told the privately owned newspaper Al-Watan.

State Department spokesperson Mark Toner told AP that the US is concerned by the weakening security condition in Northeastern Sinai. The Multinational Force and Observers (MFO), “including the US military forces stationed at the MFO North Camp, are exposed to potential risk,” Toner claimed.

After the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty was signed in 1979, MFO troops were deployed to supervise the implementation of the treaty’s security provisions, and to prevent violations of its terms. The forces come from 12 different countries, with the US contributing 700 security personnel.

On July 26, two MFO vehicles were caught in crossfire during an attack on an Egyptian security checkpoint. An Egyptian soldier was injured during the attack, but there were no reports of injuries among MFO personnel.

Omda told Al-Watan that the American threats “contradict the peace treaty [between Egypt and Israel] and would lead to its cancellation.”

Technically, however, the US would not be in violation of the treaty by withdrawing — the accord does allow the US to temporarily withdraw their forces in cases of extreme emergency.

Omda added that Egypt plans to request changing some of the treaty’s articles, “since the Armed Forces’ presence in the peninsula doesn’t match current events in Sinai,” and Egypt requires a stronger military presence there.

General Talaat Mosallam agreed with Omda’s analysis, arguing that whether the US wanted to withdraw from Sinai or reinforce its troops in Egypt, the US authorities would first have to consult both Egypt and Israel.  

If the US were to act without all three parties agreeing on its strategy, then Egypt would be freed of any obligations to the treaty and would take full control of security in Sinai “to ensure its safety and to combat terrorist groups,” Mosallam told Al-Watan.

But a US official cited in the AP story noted that given its close ties to both Egypt and Israel, the Obama administration would “prefer not to make changes to its posture unilaterally.”

Egypt-Israel relations have “warmed” under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s administration, the AP story said, noting that Israel has waived some of the treaty’s provisions on multiple occasions to allow more Egyptian troops in Sinai to fight terrorist groups.

Major General Hossam Soeillam told Al-Watan that he believes the withdrawal would never happen, given the treaty’s provisions, but warned that “the reason behind this idea [would be] to render Sinai a dangerous zone, which would consequently be grounds for subjecting it to international control.”

The privately owned news site Al-Bawaba ran an article on Thursday titled "Unveiling the conspiracy of withdrawing the peacekeeping troops from Sinai," which accused US media of promoting lies about the security conditions where the international troops are located in a scheme to portray Sinai as a zone that has devolved beyond Egypt’s control.

But official statements released by Egyptian authorities don’t convey the same accusatory tone. On Wednesday, Armed Forces spokesperson Mohamed Samir posted a statement on his official Facebook page announcing a “sports day” that the military had arranged on Tuesday for the peacekeeping troops in Sinai.

Samir also said that the head of the MFO met with the Egyptian Second Army’s field commander met and discussed the troops’ operations.