Israel Summons Egypt Envoy over PM Peace Treaty Remarks

Israel's foreign ministry on Friday summoned the Egyptian ambassador after statements by Prime Minister Essam Sharaf, who said the peace treaty between the two states is "not sacred", Israeli website Ynet reported.

Foreign Ministry Director General Rafi Barak summoned Ambassador Yasser Reda to express Israel's "irritation over the recurrent calls from senior Egyptian officials over the need for modification to the peace treaty," Ynet reported.

During the 30-minute interview at the foreign ministry headquarters in Jerusalem, Barak told Reda that "from Israel's perspective, there are no intentions whatsoever to reopen the peace treaty and the step cannot be taken unilaterally."

On Thursday, Sharaf said the 1979 peace deal with Israel "is not sacred" 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," the official MENA agency quoted Sharaf as saying.

The premier's statement comes a 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.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to minimize the repercussions of the embassy attack on bilateral ties.

"We are committed to preserving peace with Egypt, which is in the interest of Egypt and Israel," he said

Relations 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.