BICOM

The head of Egypt’s leading Salafi movement said on Tuesday that the party would respect Cairo’s 1979 peace treaty with Israel. “Treaties Egypt has signed must be upheld – we intend to respect them,” Nour party chairman Emad Abdel Ghaffour told a press conference in Cairo, adding though that Israel has not implemented certain clauses in the agreement regarding the Palestinians. Ghaffour also said his party would consider making “changes” to the peace treaty, but did not elaborate. Many Egyptians hope to see the downgrading or elimination of troop deployment limitations in the Sinai Peninsula and the renegotiation of the natural gas deal between the two countries.

Salafis represent a fundamentalist religious stream that seeks to create an Islamic state according to strict social codes and a legal system based entirely on Islamic law. The various Salafi parties have so far been the biggest surprise of the Egyptian parliamentary elections, taking about 30% of votes, placing second only behind the Muslim Brotherhood, which has acquired around 40%.

Islamists across the region have long opposed peace and normalisation of relations with Israel, and in previous statements, Islamist leaders in Egypt have called for the peace treaty to be reconsidered. However, Egypt is heavily dependent on US military and financial aid which is directly linked to maintaining the peace with Israel.

In related news, Israel’s new ambassador to Egypt, Yaacov Amitai,  said he “needed to learn more” about the electoral results when asked by Egyptian journalists yesterday whether he was concerned by Islamists’ strong showing at the polls. However, a top Israeli diplomat quoted yesterday said the ambassador would try to open channels between Israel and Islamist groups. “We should make every effort to explain we are not the enemies of the Egyptian people or of the Palestinians,” the official said.