Israel summons Egyptian Ambassador in response to Sharaf's statements about Camp David

Ahram Online , Friday 16 Sep 2011

News sources have reported that Israel denied that amending the Camp David peace treaty is on its agenda

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign affairs has summoned the Egyptian ambassador to Israel Yasser Reda today in protest of Prime Minister Essam Sharaf 's statements to Turkish TV regarding Camp David accords. 

Sharaf said in an interview aired on Egyptian TV last night, "The Camp David treaty is always open to discussion or modification if that is beneficial for the region and for a just peace. The peace treaty is not sacred and there can be changes made to it".

Today the Israeli foreign ministry met with Reda for 30 minutes to clarify that any amendments to the treatment are "not on the cards", according to Israeli news sources. The meeting was headed by the foreign ministry's director general Rafi Barack, who demanded an explanation for Sharaf's statement as well as making it clear to reda that "from Israel's perspective, there is no intention whatsoever to reopen the peace treaty and such a step cannot be taken unilaterally."

Amending the Camp David accords, especially the security arrangements in Sinai's Zones "B" and "C" was raised in Egypt after the recent killing of Egyptian border guard in Sinai. Many political parties and potential presidential candidates like Amr Moussa expressed an interest in amending the accords, and the secretary general of the Arab League Nabil Al-Araby described the peace treaty in a recent interview as “not holy writ”. 

(The abstract in this story has been corrected.)

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