Cairo, Aug 29 (ANI): Egypt‘s democratically elected President Mohammed Morsi, has vowed to respect his country’s historic peace treaty with Israel.
In his first interview with the Western press since coming to power in June, Morsi promised that a military campaign he started to root out Islamist militants in the Sinai Peninsula dividing the two countries would be conducted in compliance with the Israel-Egypt peace treaty of 1979.
“Egypt is practising its very normal role on its soil and does not threaten anyone and there should not be any kind of international or regional concerns at all from the presence of Egyptian security forces,” The Telegraph quoted Morsi, as saying.
According to the paper, he stressed that the campaign was “in full respect of international peace treaties”.
Israeli officials have expressed concerns that the deployment of additional Egyptian troops in the Sinai undermined a key clause of the treaty.
According to the paper, Israel welcomed Morsi’s comments, but challenged him to prove his genuineness by visiting Jerusalem, something even his predecessor Hosni Mubarak only did once in 1995.
“These are important tidings. But whoever talks about peace and stability must understand that it cannot just be vague and hypothetical,” the paper quoted Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s hawkish foreign minister, as saying.
“Therefore, we hope to see President Morsi receiving official Israeli representatives, we want to see him giving interviews to Israeli media and we want to see him in Jerusalem,” he added. (ANI)
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