When Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi was elected he announced he remains committed to honoring and adhering to all agreements signed in the past between Cairo and Jerusalem. Morsi added that he resigned from the Muslim Brotherhood and he sent messages of assurance to the Western community that he has no plans of seeking to convert Egypt to a Muslim fundamentalist society.

In the interim, Israel continues monitoring the new Egyptian administration carefully and it did not take too long for Morsi to make a liar out of himself by unilaterally violating the 1979 peace treaty with Israel by deploying 20 M-60 tanks and other military equipment in Sinai. Morsi sent messages of calm to Israel, seeking to support the move by explaining the militarization of Sinai is to Israel’s advantage as it represents his tenacious war against terrorists seeking to base in Sinai. Egyptian Defense Minister Abdel -Fattah el-Sissi and Defense Minister Ehud Barak spoke on the phone last Thursday, 5 Elul 5772, a first conversation between the defense ministers since the new Egyptian administration came to power.

Adding to the concerns of Israel and the US regarding Morsi’s loyalties is the fact Morsi declined to comply with a US request to intercept an Iranian weapons ship heading for Syria, the daily al-Aram reports. The report states the Egyptian head of the Suez Canal Authority stated the Egyptian navy refused to comply with the American request to stop the vessel and inspect it before it cleared the canal.

In the meantime, Iran is planning to host a gathering of unaligned nations and Morsi is expected to attend, sending another worrisome signal of the good relations between the new Egyptian administration and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Israel has complained regarding the positioning of tanks in Sinai, and has sent a message to US President Barak Obama, seeking White House intervention towards pressuring Morsi to remove the military hardware from Sinai.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)