The government is considering dispatching Ground Self-Defense Force personnel to the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO), an entity engaged in peacekeeping activities in the Israel-Egypt border area on the Sinai Peninsula in eastern Egypt, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.
If realized, it will be the first case of SDF participation in "internationally coordinated operations for peace and safety," which became possible under the security-related laws that came into force in 2016.
The government will make a final decision after conducting an investigation at the site, hoping to send the personnel early next year or later. The security situation on the peninsula is unstable due to the activities of Islamic militants, and the government has decided not to dispatch troops to the area but instead will send several GSDF personnel to the MFO's headquaters.
The MFO has been deployed to the peninsula since 1982, based on an annex to the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty signed in 1979. Its main mission is to monitor military activities of the two countries and ensure their ceasefire. Twelve countries, including the United States and Britain, have dispatched personnel comprising about 2,000 multinational forces members and civilian observers.
Under the revised U.N. Peacekeeping Activities Cooperation Law, which is included in the security-related laws, activities similar to U.N. peacekeeping operations are defined as "internationally coordinated operations for peace and safety." The law enabled the SDF to be dispatched for such operations.
As in peacekeeping operations, the SDF are allowed to protect civilians and come to their rescue when they are attacked by armed groups. To dispatch the SDF members, it is necessary to meet "the five principles on the nation's participation in peacekeeping operations." These principles include such conditions as a ceasefire agreement existing between countries concerned.
In May last year, a GSDF engineering unit withdrew from the U.N. Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS), and only personnel working in the UNMISS headquarters are currently stationed there.
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