Egypt’s Brotherhood will keep Israel treaty: Carter

The Muslim Brotherhood may seek to modify, but will not destroy, Egypt’s 33-year-old peace treaty with Israel, former US President Jimmy Carter said.
Carter, 87, was speaking after initial vote tallies put the Brotherhood’s candidate ahead in the first round of Egypt’s presidential election, which his Carter Center helped monitor.
The US statesman, who brought together Israeli leader Menachem Begin and Egypt’s Anwar Sadat in 1978 to agree the Camp David accords which led to a 1979 treaty, said he had held long discussions with senior Brotherhood figures in Egypt this week.
“My opinion is that the treaty will not be modified in any unilateral way,” Carter said at a news conference in Cairo to present the preliminary findings of his election monitors, according to Reuters.
Official results in Egypt’s first free leadership election are due on Tuesday, but informal tallies put the Brotherhood’s Mohamed Mursi and Mubarak’s last Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq in the lead. If confirmed, they would fight a run-off in June.
Hamdeen Sabahy, a leftist who has championed Palestinian resistance against Israel, was running a close third. Sabahy will file an appeal for Egypt's presidential election to be suspended because of alleged voting irregularities and a pending case over Shafiq's right to stand, Sabahy's lawyer Essam El-Islamboly said.
The peace treaty remains a lynchpin of US/Middle East policy and, despite its unpopularity with many Egyptians, was staunchly upheld by President Hosni Mubarak until his overthrow last year in a popular uprising.
Carter said the treaty had not been violated by either side since its inception and that any problems had been resolved peacefully.
“The Israelis apologized for that. They see great value in preserving the treaty,” Reuters quoted Carter as saying.