Sisi, Abdullah promote two-state solution

CAIRO (Reuters) The leaders of Egypt and Jordan reaffirmed their continued support on Tuesday for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after US President Donald Trump suggested abandoning it.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah discussed the issue and coordination of their positions on the Middle East peace process at a meeting in Cairo, a statement from Sisi’s office said.

Trump suggested at a White House meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week that he was open to new ways to achieve peace that did not necessarily entail the creation of a Palestinian state, a benchmark of US policy for decades.

Most Arab countries call for a Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 lines before Israel seized the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu has described the pre-1967 lines as indefensible and has said Israel would never return to them.

“The two sides discussed future movements to break gridlock within the Middle East peace process, especially with US President Donald Trump’s administration taking power,” Sisi’s office said in a statement after the Sisi-Abdullah meeting. “They also discussed mutual coordination to reach a two-state solution and establish a Palestinian state based on the June 4, 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as a capital, which is a national constant that cannot be given up.”

The meeting took place two days after media reports regarding a secret meeting the two men secretly had with Netanyahu last year in a failed attempt by the Obama administration to convene a wider regional summit on Israeli-Palestinian peace.

A Netanyahu spokesman declined to comment on the report in Israel’s Haaretz daily. Sisi’s office issued a statement referring to it as having “incorrect information” but did not deny that a meeting took place. No comment was available from Jordan.