Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has urged the Trump Administration to pressure Egypt into reducing its recent military build-up in the Sinai Peninsula, according to one U.S. official and two Israeli officials who spoke with Axios. In a meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Jerusalem on Monday, Netanyahu reportedly presented a list of what he described as significant Egyptian violations of the 1979 peace treaty with Israel.
Israeli officials allege that Egypt has been constructing military infrastructure in areas where the treaty permits only light weapons, including extended runways at airbases capable of hosting fighter jets, as well as underground facilities that Israeli intelligence suspects could eventually be used to store missiles aimed at Israel.
Egypt, for its part, has reinforced its presence along the Gaza border amid Israel’s ongoing war in the enclave, fearing that Netanyahu’s government may attempt to push some or all of Gaza’s two million residents into Sinai. Cairo has declared that any mass influx of Palestinian refugees would constitute a threat to Egypt’s national security. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s government has also cautioned Israel against taking steps that could destabilize the landmark 1979 peace accord, which ended decades of conflict dating back to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
