BICOM

According to a Maariv report this morning, Israel has told Egypt that it must remove its tanks from the Sinai Peninsula as their continued deployment is in contravention of the peace treaty between the two countries.

According to the report, the message was sent via the White House in an effort to give the warning extra weight, as the relationship between Israel and Egypt has been strained since the overthrow of Egypt’s former President Hosni Mubarak.

On Monday, an Egyptian security source told Reuters that Cairo would begin to deploy tanks, aircraft and artillery in the Sinai in a bid to root terrorist elements out of the Peninsula. The move constitutes an unprecedented military presence in the Sinai, which has been demilitarised since the signing of the 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt.

Earlier this month Israel did agree to an increased Egyptian troop presence in the Sinai as part of Cairo’s clean-up operation against terrorist operating from the Peninsula. The deployment came after an attack at the beginning of August on an Egyptian border post, which left 16 border police dead.