CAIRO — A spokesman for Egypt's president says there is currently no need to amend the peace treaty with Israel, despite calls in Cairo to change the 1979 accord to allow the country to beef up its presence in the Sinai Peninsula to combat militants there.
The comments by Yasser Ali, carried by the state Middle East News Agency, were made Wednesday in New York where President Mohammed Morsi is attending the U.N. General Assembly.
Many Egyptians have for years considered the limitations on troop deployments to be impinging on national sovereignty. Egyptian groups including the Muslim Brotherhood, from which Morsi hails, have called for revising the treaty.
Although Israel has allowed Egypt to temporarily strengthen its forces in the Sinai to fight Islamist militants, it is leery about formalizing any changes.
© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.