Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi is continuing to do damage control on a Sinai Peninsula crackdown which was simultaneously done at the behest of the Israeli Defense Minister and which has outraged other Israeli ministers who have loudly condemned him for it.
Mursi ordered tanks deployed to Sinai as part of a crackdown against anti-Israel militants along the border, following a border attack which Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned should be a “wake-up call” for Egypt on border security.
After endorsing some of the early moves, Israel stopped making public pronouncements then suddenly demanded Egypt withdraw all tanks from Sinai, accusing them of violating the 1979 peace treaty which only allowed deployments into Sinai with explicit Israeli permission.
Mursi insisted today that the crackdown would continue but would comply with existing treaties, and that he remained committed to following the Israeli peace deal in particular.
