Egypt wanted to renegotiate peace treaty, says Ya'alon

Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya'alon says Israel refused and Egypt had to drop the request for fear of losing aid from the U.S. • Ya’alon says Israel is willing to discuss additional Egyptian military deployments in Sinai to combat terrorist groups there.

Shlomo Cesana

Vice Prime Minister and Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe (Bogie) Ya'alon says amending the peace treaty with Egypt is out of the question. | Photo credit: Dudi Vaaknin

Vice Prime Minister and Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe (Bogie) Ya'alon revealed on Friday that Egypt had recently asked Israel to renegotiate the terms of the 1979 peace treaty between the two countries, but Israel had refused. Ya'alon also said Egypt had understood that it had to accept the Israeli stance or risk losing U.S. aid.

Speaking at an industry and commerce conference in Tel Aviv, Ya'alon said, "We have a peace treaty with Egypt. We do not conduct pinpoint strikes in Sinai, and so terrorists have greater freedom to operate there. We demand from the Egyptians that they act with resolve and impose their sovereignty there, and this will be put to the test. This regime asked to revisit the military appendix of the peace treaty, but this was in no way acceptable to us."

Ya'alon said that if Egypt wished to deploy additional forces in Sinai, Israel would be willing to discuss this, "but it would be a very bad precedent if we would agree to renegotiate our treaty."

"Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, he has been cautious in his speeches. He refrains from mentioning Israel, but on the other hand he is confined by certain constraints. Even though he wants very much to renegotiate the treaty, he is forced to say he is committed to it, because if he does not say this, aid money from the U.S. would no longer flow to Egypt. This is the political reality and it proves that a treaty that is not backed up with incentives is not worth the paper it is written on," Ya'alon said.

On Sept. 23, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israel Radio there was "no chance" that Israel would agree to make changes to the military appendix of the Camp David Accords, and Egypt "should not delude itself and others" into thinking so.

Lieberman's comments came in response to reports suggesting that the Egyptian government was planning to re-examine the military appendix of the Israel-Egypt peace treaty amid the deteriorating security situation in the Sinai Peninsula.