WASHINGTON [MENL] -- Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak planned to deploy
troops in eastern Sinai near the Israeli border to provide military backing
for Palestinian demands from the Jewish state, a Palestinian document says.The PLO document quoted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak as pledging to
move forces into the Sinai to force Israel to accept Palestinian demands.
The document said Mubarak issued the pledge to PA Chairman Yasser Arafat in
1996.Mubarak, according to the document, planned to unilaterally terminate
the restrictions placed on Egyptian troop deployment in the Sinai, a key
element of the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli treaty. The president argued that the
demilitarization clause of the peace treaty was to expire in 1997."We will move our forces, not to declare war, but to tell Israel, 'The
time has come to fulfill our legitimate rights to deploy military forces in
the Sinai under the Camp David agreement, that determined that Egypt has the
right to deploy forces in the Sinai after 18 years," Mubarak was quoted as
saying in the PLO document.
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