Nic Pelham writes for Chatham House on the deterioration of security in Sinai:
For over 30 years, the Sinai peninsula has served as a near-empty
territory cushioning the geopolitical aspirations of Egypt, Israel and
the Palestinians. With the changes brought about in Egypt by President
Hosni Mubarak’s fall from power in 2011, that buffer is in doubt. The
state security apparatus that underpinned the Egyptian regime collapsed,
creating a vacuum that the territory’s sparse Bedouin population
quickly filled with coping mechanisms of its own. Captivated by the
prospect of acquiring power, local irregulars reacted fiercely to the
regime’s efforts to regain control over its periphery, culminating in
the August 2012 operation that targeted an Egyptian base, killing 16
soldiers, and perforated Israel’s border defences at the intersection of
its border with Egypt and Gaza. Security officials, police stations,
government buildings and Cairo-based institutions have all come under
attack. In the eyes of its neighbours, Egypt is losing its grip over
Sinai, transforming the peninsula into a theatre for the region’s
competing new forces.
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