Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sent a letter to Egypt’s newly elected President Mohammed Mursi, urging him to honor a peace treaty between the two countries, according to a source told AFP on Sunday.
The Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Sunday morning that the letter, “stressed Israel’s desire to continue cooperation and to strengthen the peace,” an Israeli source said on condition of anonymity.
The letter “congratulated Mursi on his election, offered to cooperate with the new government in Cairo and expressed… hope that both parties will observe the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty.”
Haaretz said Israeli officials, after holding talks with Washington had decided to put off attempts to organize a phone call between Mursi and Netanyahu, but said the Israeli leader had dispatched an envoy for meetings with Egyptian security officials.
However, according to Maan news agency the Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi has refused to talk with the Prime Minister of Israel over the phone and refused to meet him, despite the letter sent congratulating him on his election.
Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty that ended 30 years of conflict in 1979. Israel has watched cautiously as the Muslim Brotherhood has gained increasing influence in Egypt.
Mursi began his first full day in office on Sunday after being sworn in as the country’s first democratically elected civilian president on Saturday, Mursi formally received a transfer of power and pledge of support from the military.
Internationally, Mursi said on Saturday that Egypt would back the Palestinians. “I announce from here that Egypt, its people and presidential institution stand with the Palestinian people until they regain all their rights,” he said.
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Mursi ..will he stand his ground?? I hope this will change things on the ground too for Peace humanity and stability!!
Not convinced the policy will see considerable changes under Morsi…the declaration itself sounds too populist besides being polysemous…
What does “full rights” mean at this time anyway, when the two-states solution is effectively dead and buried by the developments on the ground and the one-state solution, despite being closer to actual reality, does not bode well with many Palestinians and Israelis who have lived with the “self-determination” and “national home” doctrine for too long…
The US have made their intentions perfectly clear too, that this peace treaty is of “strategic importance” for them, and have been flexing their muscles to Egyptians via the military which is heavily financed by them…
Morsi himself would need the fidelity and the consolidated support of the SCAF anyways even if he were to simply step up the rhetoric, nevermind actually doing something that would challenge “peace, security and development” in the area…
The US have already said that the new egyptian leadership has declared it will uphold their treaty with Israel. But it could be they just wanted to alter the approach of the Israelis and get them to show greater cooperative spirit and make the first step…
…in this way, they will be “showing the world” they are ready for negotiations and let Morsi be judged for not displaying analogous good will…
Time will tell…it’s a debatable issue though, what is the path that would support the Palestinian cause