Multinational Peacekeeping: Egypt

Thursday 25th February 2016 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Defence (Michael Fallon)]

The UK will deploy a squadron of Royal Engineers to provide short-term engineering support to the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO), a non-UN multilateral peacekeeping organisation in Egypt. The MFO was created by an agreement between the Arab Republic of Egypt and the State of Israel to monitor the terms of the 1979 Treaty of the Peace and continues to make an important contribution to peace and stability in the region. The deployment begins in March 2016 and will involve approximately 100 personnel from the Corps of the Royal Engineers carrying out a range of infrastructure improvement works at the MFO main operating base in Sinai for up to 12 weeks.

The UK has a long history of supporting the MFO, and currently provides the MFO with an Engineer Officer of the rank of Major to serve on the Force Commander’s Staff.

In the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015, the Government strengthened the UK’s commitment to international peacekeeping. This deployment further underlines our support to regional peace and security.

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