Al Sissi hosts Jordan king and PNA’s Abbas in Cairo in regional peace push
AL SISSI HOSTS KING ABDULLAH AND ABBAS IN CAIRO TO DISCUSS WAY FORWARD
The leaders of Egypt, Jordan and Palestine met in Cairo yesterday to discuss efforts to break the impasse in Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations, warning of “grave consequences” to regional stability if the Palestinian problem is left unresolved.
Egyptian President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi hosted the trilateral meeting with Jordanian King Abdullah II and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
The three leaders held closed-door talks. They were later joined by delegations from their countries. “The leaders emphasised that the summit offered an opportunity for discussions and exchanging views on the best ways to push forward the peace process and how to put anew the Palestinian cause on the top priorities of the international community,” Egyptian presidential spokesman Bassam Radi said.
Radi said Egypt and Jordan renewed their support to the Palestinians and Abbas against any “unilateral change” on the ground harming the Palestinians’ rights to establish their independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
“They stressed the importance of pooling all efforts of brothers and partners to work for revival of the peace process and resumption of negotiations according to international legitimacy reference frameworks,” he added.
Abbas condemned “the aggressions of [Jewish] settlers... under the protection of the Israeli army”, in reference to the threatened expulsion of Palestinians from Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
Al Sissi pointed out that fulfilling the Palestinians’ aspiration to independent statehood will not be achieved without ending years-long rifts between the Gaza Strip controlled by Hamas movement and the West Bank ruled by the Palestinian National Authority.
The Cairo talks came days after Abbas met with Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz in the West Bank city of Ramallah, marking the highest-level such meeting between the Palestinian leader and an Israeli minister since Israel’s new government was formed in June.
Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met US President Joe Biden in Washington, who voiced support for a two-state solution to the conflict.
Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979. In May, Egypt brokered a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, ending the worst bout of violence between the two sides in years.