US has no plans to withdraw troops from Sinai

By Esra Kaymak Avci

WASHINGTON

The U.S. is not planning to withdraw troops from the Sinai Peninsula but may restructure them, a State Department spokesman said Tuesday.

The move was in no way a lessening of the U.S. commitment but the result of a “constant consultation” with Egypt and Israel about how to restructure in the Sinai, Mark Toner said.

"This is about modernizing our force structure on the ground in the Sinai. It's not about responding to, as I said, the threat of ISIL on the ground,” he said, using an alternative abbreviation for the terrorist Daesh group.

Earlier Tuesday, the Pentagon said that the rise of Daesh in the Sinai prompted the U.S. to consider changing its mission there.

According to media reports, the Pentagon will change or scale back its mission of about 700 troops and will replace them with drones or unmanned surveillance.

The State Department confirmed Tuesday that Defense Secretary Ash Carter has formally communicated with Egypt and Israel and told both countries that the U.S. reviewed its mission as part of the Multinational Force of Observers (MFO).

Since the Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty was signed in 1979, MFO supervises the implementation of the security provisions between the two countries that share a border, according to the mission’s website.

Using drones or satellite technology, the U.S. mission monitors activity along the border.

Since the leading terrorist group in the Sinai region, Wilayat Sinai, has declared an alliance with Daesh in 2014, the U.S. mission has been caught in the middle of fighting between Egyptian military forces and the group.

Last year, several U.S. troops were injured in the region and the Pentagon deployed 75 additional troops to the peninsula to provide protection.