CAIRO, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's military chief of staff and the director of the multinational force observing Egyptian-Israeli borders discussed on Sunday the coordination between the two sides to maintain border peace and security, the Egyptian military spokesman said in a statement.
The meeting between Egypt's Chief of Staff Mahmoud Hegazy and visiting Director General of the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) Robert Stephen Beecroft addressed a number of topics to boost their coordination and consultation and optimize the border security and facilitate the MFO's mission in Egypt's Sinai borderline, said military spokesman Tamer al-Refaay in the statement.
Egypt and Israel reached a U.S. sponsored peace treaty in 1979. The MFO's mission, usually led by a U.S. veteran diplomat, is to supervise the implementation of the security provisions of the treaty and exert best efforts to prevent any violation of its terms.
Since the treaty is signed, the United States has been sending annual military aid to Israel and Egypt. Israel, the U.S. number one regional ally, gets over 3 billion U.S. dollars in annual military aid while Egypt receives 1.3 billion.
The relations between the Egyptian leadership and both the United States and Israel have significantly improved under Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi.
Egypt has been working hard on reviving the frozen Israeli-Palestinian peace process as well as mediating between rival Palestinian factions for reconciliation and national unity.
Egypt's North Sinai province bordering Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip has been suffering a wave of terrorism, launched by affiliates of the Islamic State regional militant group, that killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers since the military ousted former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.
