El Sisi and Abbas meet in Egypt to discuss way ahead
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi yesterday while diplomats from the US, Germany and the EU toured the region for talks aimed at preventing the war in Gaza from spreading.
Mr Abbas arrived in Cairo on Sunday night.
A brief statement by the Egyptian presidency said little about the content of the talks between Mr El Sisi and the leader of the Palestinian Authority, which governs the occupied West Bank.
It quoted Mr Abbas as saying the “only solution” to the escalation of hostilities in the region was “ending Israeli occupation of the land of the state of Palestine and its capital [East] Jerusalem”.
The statement said Mr Abbas also told Mr El Sisi the Palestinian Authority opposed any plans to evict Palestinians living in Gaza, the West Bank or East Jerusalem.
The meeting took place as mediators were trying to agree on a blueprint for the future of Gaza once hostilities between Hamas and Israel come to an end.
Egypt, Qatar and the US have been mediating between Israel and Hamas.
Their mediation efforts resulted in a week-long truce that ended on December 1 after the warring parties completed an exchange of hostages and detainees.
The three mediators have since been working towards another detainee and hostage swap deal, a permanent ceasefire and arrangements for the governance and security of Gaza after the war, now in its third month, eventually ends.
Egyptian sources familiar with the back-channel negotiations have said the Palestinian Authority has repeatedly told mediators it is the legitimate representative of the Palestinians and should be given the responsibility of running Gaza after the war.
It also seeks to control funds set aside by donors for the enclave’s reconstruction.
Hamas has ruled Gaza since its supporters expelled representatives of the Palestinian Authority and members of the mainstream Palestinian Fatah faction from the territory in a brief civil war in 2007, two years after Israel pulled out of the enclave after 38 years.