CAIRO: Egyptian MPs called Monday for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador and his Egyptian counterpart to be recalled from Tel Aviv in protest at Israel s offensive in the Gaza Strip.
The official news agency MENA said several deputies supported the call from Ibrahim Al-Gugari, head of the house s constitutional committee. Some MPs went further, calling for a freeze on Egypt s 1979 peace treaty with Israel.
Parliament speaker Fathi Sorour said the motion would be passed on to the foreign affairs committee because it relates to the sovereignty of Egypt, the only Arab state apart from Jordan to have made peace with Israel.
At the end of the session, the deputies passed a motion condemning the savage Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people, accusing Israel of carrying out massacres without respect for international laws, MENA said.
On Thursday, the head of parliament s foreign affairs committee warned that Israel s offensive in the Palestinian territories after the capture June 25 of one of its soldiers could threaten the peace treaty.
Israel should not think that the peace reached with an Arab country can be guaranteed while it continues to perpetrate its crimes and aggressions, Mustafa El-Fekki told AFP.
Israel s ambassador to Egypt, Shalom Cohen, took up his post in May 2005, while Egypt sent an ambassador to Tel Aviv in March last year after a four-year break in protest at its repression of the Palestinian uprising. AFP
