(CNN) -- Egypt has agreed to allow two Iranian warships to cross through the Suez Canal in a move that puts the country's new military regime in a prickly position with its Israeli neighbor.
The post-Hosni Mubarak caretaker government gave the green light to the Iranian warships Friday, state media reported. They are expected to be the first Iranian warships to sail through the Suez since the Islamic republic's 1979 revolution.
The canal is an internal body of water, and as such, Egypt has sovereignty over it. But Egypt also is bound by the 1976 Camp David Accords, which guaranteed the right of free passage by ships belonging to Israel and all other nations on the basis of the Constantinople Convention of 1888. Before that, Egypt did not allow Israeli ships to sail through the canal.
Last week, Egypt's military government said it would honor all its international treaties. That would include Camp David.
"This is awkward -- at a minimum," said David Schenker, director of the Program on Arab Politics at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Schenker said the Iranians had asked for a frigate -- the Alvand -- and a military supply ship -- the Kharg -- to cross into the Mediterranean. Both are armed with missiles, he said. Their passage would create more uncertainty in the region. CNN
