ISRAEL OKs EGYPTIAN TROOPS, ARMOR IN SINAI [Illiterate Israelis?]

[IMRA: Despite what is written below, under the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace
treaty, Egypt could deploy an UNLIMITED limited number of border guards
armed with assault rifles in eastern Sinai. Ask the Foreign Ministry and
after looking it up they will confirm it - but that knowlege returns back
deep in the Israeli government's collective memory hole a moment later. Why
does Egypt need heavy armor and weapons to act against smugglers operating
in a small border neighborhood in their own sovereign country? ]

JERUSALEM [MENL] -- Israel has approved in principle the deployment of
Egyptian special forces, heavy weapons and armor in eastern Sinai.

Israeli officials said the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has
agreed to an Egyptian proposal for the deployment of 750 border guard troops
in eastern Sinai. They said the troops would be equipped with armored combat
vehicles, medium- to heavy weapons and would patrol the Israeli-Egyptian as
well as the Egyptian-Gaza border.

Under the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, Egypt could deploy a limited
number of border guards in eastern Sinai. The Egyptian border guards could
not be equipped with anything other than light weapons.

But officials said Sharon has agreed to a significant increase in Egyptian
troops as well as unidentified heavier weapons and armor. They said the
expanded Egyptian presence would bolster border security and could stop the
flow of weapons from Sinai into the Gaza Strip across the eight-kilometer
Philadephia corridor.
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