CAIRO: Mustafa El-Fiqi, who heads Parliament’s foreign relations committee, has lashed out at Hamas, saying the Palestinian group won’t be allowed to set up an “Islamic emirate in the Gaza Strip which it controls.
El-Fiqi said Egypt wouldn’t tolerate an Islamic state on its eastern border.
Egypt is increasingly displeased with Hamas – especially after it boycotted Egypt-mediated Palestinian reconciliation talks in Cairo last month.
El-Fiqi’s comments Wednesday indicate that Egypt plans to continue efforts to isolate the narrow coastal strip. Hamas seized control of Gaza in June 2007, splitting Palestinian territories in two. Its rival, President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement controls the West Bank. -AP
