Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on Tuesday also called on Israel and the Palestinians to seize what he described as a “realistic” and “great” opportunity to reach a peaceful settlement to their decades-old conflict.
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Following the publication of the Egyptian leader’s remarks Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu released the following statement. “But as the secretary said when we were in Paris just last week, that we welcome all manner of discussion and all constructive ideas that can help lead us to better prospects for a two-state solution”.
US officials traveling with Kerry said he spoke by telephone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday and wanted hear more from el-Sissi about his plans.
For his party, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli prime minister, welcomed Sisi’s “willingness to invest every effort to advance a future of peace and security between us and the Palestinians”. Sisi’s proposal, made during an impromptu speech at an economic conference, came as France pushes for an worldwide conference to launch peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis.
CAIRO (AP) – The United States and Egypt looked for ways Wednesday to inject life into Israel’s moribund peace process with the Palestinians, after the Arab country’s leader said an agreement would make warmer ties with the Jewish state possible.
Egypt was the first of a handful of Arab countries to recognise Israel with a US-sponsored peace accord in 1979, but Egyptian attitudes toward their neighbour remain chilly.
“We welcome any efforts aimed at ending the Israeli occupation”, Wasel Abu Youssef, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, told Reuters.
Both these actions stir anger and boost support for hardliners on both sides of the dispute, making an eventual negotiated deal harder to imagine.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Kerry would fly to Cairo after talks on the Syrian crisis in Vienna and before heading to Brussels to meet North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies.
“I think we’ve also made very clear our concerns about some of the steps that have been taken on the ground that call into question the viability of a two-state solution”, the U.S. official said.
The initiative offered full recognition of Israel but only if it gave up all land seized in the 1967 Middle East war and agreed to a “just solution” for Palestinian refugees.
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“It is a pity that these messages, like the message of the Saudi King from 2002 when he spoke on the Arab Peace Initiative, fall on deaf ears”.
