JERUSALEM: Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak expressed deep concern on Saturday after early results in Egypt’s post-revolution election showed Islamists sweeping to victory.
"The process of Islamisation in Arab countries is very worrying," Barak told Israel’s private Channel Two television.
But he added, however, that it was "premature to say how these changes will affect the region."
Partial figures that trickled Saturday in Egypt confirmed earlier predictions that Islamist parties, including hardline Salafists, would win at least two thirds of the ballots cast.
The Muslim Brotherhood, expected to win 40 percent of votes in the first phase of Egypt’s post-revolution election, stressed Saturday it was a moderate force, not to be confused with hardliners.
Egyptians voted on Monday and Tuesday in the first part of a parliamentary election that is taking place in three stages.
"I hope that any government that will be formed in Egypt will have no other choice but to respect its international commitments including the (1979) peace treaty with Israel," Barak said.
He also stressed that Egypt should bolster control of the Sinai peninsula where saboteurs on Monday blew up a pipeline that supplies gas to Israel and Jordan.
The attack was the ninth of its kind this year. The first one took place during the mass uprisings that drove Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak from power in February.
Israel’s main fear is the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been cool to the peace treaty and has close ties with the ruling Hamas militant group in the Gaza Strip. The election is being held in stages and the final outcome won’t be known until next year.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Ben Dor said Israel is not surprised by the Muslim Brotherhood’s initial election gains and is convinced the Israel-Egypt peace treaty will remain intact.
"We respect the election results in Egypt. This is the Egyptian people’s choice," Ben Dor said.
In a statement on a Hamas website, top Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk said that "the Egyptian people have voiced their confidence in the Islamists. … We do believe that Egyptian support in the future will be more for our cause."
