A recent decision to prohibit foreign nationals or dual citizens from owning land in the border area in Sinai is not intended to be specifically against Palestinians or any other citizens of neighboring countries, said Armed Forces spokesperson Ahmed Mohamed Ali.
The ban Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi issued on land ownership within 5 km of the east Sinai border with Israel came "because of the military importance of this region as a border line," Ali told Turkish news agency Anadolu Sunday.
The Armed Forces decided last Sunday to ban the ownership, usufruct or leasing of the land and real estate in strategic areas of military importance, especially areas adjacent to the eastern borders with Israel and the Gaza Strip.
Article II of the decision stated, "It is allowed for natural persons holding exclusively Egyptian citizenship without any other nationalities, and descend from Egyptian parents, and legal persons which capital is entirely owned by those holding Egyptian Citizenship alone without any other nationalities, the acquisitions in the Sinai Peninsula".
The government approved in October the operational mechanisms for ownership in the territory of Sinai for Egyptians, provided that the applicant for ownership does not hold another nationality other than the Egyptian, and that the applicant's parents are Egyptians.
