Egypt PM Says Peace Treaty with Israel 'Not Sacred'

Egypt's Prime Minister Essam Sharaf said on Thursday that the 1979 peace treaty with Israel "is not sacred," state-run MENA news agency reported, quoting remarks he made in an interview with Turkish television.

"The Camp David treaty is always open to discussion or for modification if that is beneficial for the region and for a just peace. The peace treaty is not something sacred and there can be changes made to it," MENA quoted Sharaf as saying.

Ties between Egypt and Israel took a blow last week after protesters ransacked the Israeli embassy in Cairo, forcing the evacuation of staff and the departure of the ambassador.

The attack late on Friday, in which crowds smashed through an external security wall, tossed embassy papers from balconies and tore down the Israeli flag, was the worst since Israel set up its mission in Egypt, the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with the Jewish state.

It was the latest episode in worsening relations between Egypt and Israel since the killing of six Egyptian policemen on their common border as Israel hunted militants after a deadly attack last month.

Ties between Egypt and Israel, which have been bound by a peace treaty since 1979, have entered a period of turbulence since the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak by a popular uprising in February.

Activists behind Mubarak's fall have urged a revision of the treaty and the call echoed by the powerful Muslim Brotherhood after the embassy attack, although the Islamists did not ask that the treaty be broken.

Egypt's military rulers have repeatedly said they are committed to all international pacts signed by former regimes, namely the peace treaty between the two countries.

Sharaf's remarks came in response to a question by Turkish television on the "timing" of a visit this week to Egypt by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as Ankara's relations with long-time ally Israel also soured.

"Erdogan's visit to Egypt came at a very delicate time as there are real changes happening in the Middle East," MENA quoted him as saying in the interview.

"We should care about the root of the problem and the problem in the Middle East is the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land," Sharaf added.

Erdogan late on Monday began in Egypt a three-nation Arab Spring tour of countries where popular uprisings toppled veteran, autocratic regimes, and was in Tunisia on Thursday ahead of visiting Libya.

He has been blasting Israel and on Thursday vowed in Tunis that his navy would patrol the Mediterranean and keep the Jewish state in check.

"Israel will no longer be able to do what it wants in the Mediterranean and you'll be seeing Turkish warships in this sea," Erdogan said.

He also reiterated his insistence on an Israeli apology for last year's raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that left nine pro-Palestinian activists dead, all of them Turks or of Turkish origin.

Earlier this month Ankara expelled the Israeli ambassador and suspended all military ties and defense trade over Israel's refusal to apologize for the flotilla raid.