Al Sissi for restarting Mideast peace talks

Egyptian President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi called for a resumption of Israel-Palestinian peace talks when he met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, Al Sissi’s office said yesterday.

Netanyahu, writing on Twitter, said his talks with Al Sissi focused on “regional developments”.

At the meeting at his hotel in New York, Al Sissi “stressed the importance of resuming the negotiations between the two sides, the Palestinians and the Israelis, to reach a just and a comprehensive solution based on a two-state solution and in accordance with the international treaties,” according to a presidential statement.

Egypt has also been working to broker a longterm ceasefire between the Israeli occupation regime and the Gaza Strip’s Hamas movement amid frequent Israeli regime violence on the Israel-Gaza border.

The peace talks have been suspended since 2014 and efforts to revive them have not been successful. Palestinians are boycotting Washington’s peace efforts after Trump broke with long-standing US policy by recognising occupied Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the American Embassy to the contested city.