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The Washington Institute for Near East Policy asserts that Egyptian Defense Minister Abdul Fatah Sisi, in a break with policy that lasted since the 1979 peace treaty, authorized the military and intelligence community to maintain direct relations with Israel. In a report, the institute said the new regime in Cairo has marginalized the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, which played a significant role in liaison with the Jewish state.
“Today, Israeli and Egyptian officers hold almost daily meetings and have established an efficient system of communications,” the report, titled “Israeli-Egyptian Peace: 40 Years After the 1973 War and Holding,” said. “This cooperation stems from a mutual interest in curbing the terrorist factions that have emerged in Sinai over the past decade, threatening both the Israeli border and Egyptian control over the peninsula.”
Author Ehud Yaari, a leading Israeli analyst with close ties to the* intelligence community, asserted that the military and intelligence cooperation between Cairo and Jerusalem reached “unprecedented levels” in 2013. Yaari said the military coup against Egypt’s first Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, resulted in an assessment with Israel that Hamas marked the leading adversary in the region.
“And now that Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood have been ousted, both governments view the Hamas administration in Gaza as an adversary to be contained,” the report said.
Dated Oct. 2,2013, the report provided details of Egyptian-Israeli security coordination. Yaari cited the presence of a representative of Egypt’s General Intelligence Directorate in the embassy in Tel Aviv.
“This close security cooperation has also spurred Cairo to delegate responsibility for maintaining relations with Israel to the General Intelligence Directorate and, to a lesser extent, the military,” the report said. “The Foreign Ministry is much less involved. For example, the go-to official at the Egyptian embassy in Tel Aviv is the GID representative, who is usually granted the modest title of consul.”
The report suggested that the current close security cooperation between Egypt and Israel could continue. Yaari said Egypt and Israel share a distrust of the United States and regard Iran and its proxies as a threat.
“Thus, even as Cairo carefully restricts the scope of its contacts with Israel, it has a growing interest in enhancing cooperation on Sinai, Gaza, and wider regional issues,” the report said.
