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Will Sisi fulfill his 'Sinai promise'?

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has promised that a new development project will eliminate terrorism and revive the economy in the Sinai Peninsula, but past failures raise doubts about its effective implementation.
An Egyptian army vehicle guard the site where a Russian airliner crashed in the al-Hasanah area  in El Arish city, north Egypt, November 1, 2015. Russia has grounded Airbus A321 jets flown by the Kogalymavia airline, Interfax news agency reported on Sunday, after one of its fleet crashed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people on board. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany - RTX1U8ZS
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In an on-air call last month with Amr Adeeb on the Al Qahera Al Youm channel, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared his plan to complete the building of an integrated urban community in the Sinai Peninsula within the next year and a half.

“I have allocated 10 billion Egyptian pounds [$1.1 billion] to develop Sinai. There is no room for trifling, neither with ourselves nor with the Egyptian people. Eighteen months from now, you and the Egyptian people will see a fully developed area in Sinai, starting with a creation of a 1,500-kilometer [930-mile] network of roads and bridges, the development of main axes and the building of Bedouin compounds, each comprising 150 houses and 500 agricultural acres. We aim to create an integrated urban community for our children, whether in the north or the south,” Sisi told Adeeb March 7.

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