Egypt rejects U.S. offer to deploy int'l force on border with Gaza
By Haaretz Service and News Agencies Last update - 20:14 01/11/2006
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/782677.html

As tension mounted in the Gaza Strip, top Egyptian and U.S. intelligence
officials met Wednesday to work out possible solutions for policing its
border with Egypt which is suspected to be used by Hamas militants to
smuggle weapons, officials and diplomats said Wednesday.

Egyptian officials said Egypt turned down American proposals to station
international forces led by the U.S. along the border, but promised to boost
their own efforts to monitor the border and crack down on traffickers.

"This [proposal] is not accepted by the government, nor by public opinion,"
said one Egyptian official who is involved in the border security operation.

U.S. National Intelligence Director John Negroponte concluded talks
Wednesday with his Egyptian counterpart, Omar Suleiman, who has also been
working on a deal to coax the Palestinian radical group to moderate its
policies and join Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' peace
efforts.

Egyptian officials said Negroponte and Suleiman reviewed "bilateral security
cooperation." U.S. Embassy officials declined to comment on Negroponte's
visit.

But Arab diplomats said Negroponte proposed to Suleiman that Egypt allow a
U.S.-led team of multinational peace monitors help police the porous border
with Gaza.

He also proposed that CIA counterterrorism experts assist in efforts to halt
cross-border smuggling and combat terrorism in the Sinai peninsula, which
has been the scene of several attacks on tourists in the last three years,
said the diplomats.

Last year U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice brokered a security
agreement that allowed Israel Defense Forces troops to withdraw from the
border area after 38 years of Israeli control.

Following the withdrawal, Egypt sent some 750 of its security forces to
boost the small contingent of police in the area.

On Sunday, Egypt's official media reported that some 5,000 police forces
were dispatched to the border following reports that Israeli aircraft might
bomb the area in a bid to destroy tunnels used to smuggle weapons.

Both Israel and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak denied the reports.

Under their 1979 peace agreement, Egypt is allowed only a small number of
police forces in areas close to the border with Israel.

On Tuesday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit proposed building
surveillance towers and sending more Egyptian patrols to the border area,
saying, "Egypt's border with Gaza is a matter of sovereignty between
Egypt and the Palestinians."

The Multinational Force and Observers in Sinai comprises 1,800
troops from 11 nations, including the United States, Canada, several
European states, Australia and New Zealand.