Egypt Floats a Revision to the Camp David Accords

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi is currently evaluating the idea of amending the Camp David accords, a legal adviser to the president said Aug.13. Mohamed Gadallah, the presidential adviser, told Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm that Morsi would like to change the accords with Israel to give Egypt full sovereignty and control over the Sinai Peninsula and allow Cairo to permanently station military forces in the strategic buffer zone, which is currently barred.

There are a number of reasons that Morsi, a former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, may be hinting at amending the Camp David accords. Under intense pressure to rebuild Egypt's troubled economy, Morsi may be raising the prospect of changing the accords as a way to extract more economic and military aid from the United States, which wants to avoid any potentially destabilizing changes in the Egypt-Israel relationship. Morsi's overt review of the accords is also intended to signal that the Muslim Brotherhood understands the Egyptian public's disapproval of the peace treaty and is serious about redefining the country's relationship with Israel, the United States and its own military establishment.