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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Israel to allow Egypt to boost force on Gaza border to fight smuggling |
| 2009-01-24 |
| Israel has taken a favorable view of an Egyptian request to increase the force of its border guards along the Philadelphi Route by at least 750 - and possibly as much as 1,500 - according to a senior Israeli political source. Meanwhile, the head of the political-security bureau at the Defense Ministry, Amos Gilad, discussed the matter of expanding the Egyptian border force with Omar Suleiman, head of the Egypt's intelligence, in Cairo last night. In Rafah, residents told Haaretz that the Egyptians had deployed 1,200 regulars whose mission is to secure the border and prevent smuggling. The senior Israeli political source said that Gilad had also updated Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as well as Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak on his talks with Suleiman. The source added that even though it is not clear what the precise number of additional soldiers to be deployed will be, Israel will agree to a larger force. It is also unclear whether the broadening of the Egyptian border force will become part of the Israeli-Egyptian peace accords, or whether it will be a tacit agreement between the two. If the agreement is to be anchored in a written deal, the cabinet and the Knesset will need to approve it because it will alter the peace agreement of 1979. "Increasing the Egyptian force will not constitute an obstacle to the understandings between the two countries on the issue of smuggling," a political source said yesterday in Jerusalem. "This is not what will make this deal fail." Regarding possible numbers of Egyptian troops, the senior political source said that currently there are 750 troops along the border and Egypt had asked to double that number in the past. However, now tripling the force is being considered, raising the number to 2,250, and enabling 750 soldiers to patrol in three shifts 24 hours a day. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 the force is being considered, raising the number to 2,250 Hurting Hamas by raising the amount of bribes they've to pay? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2009-01-24 10:20 |