CAIRO: Egypt denied late on Monday that it signed an anti-smuggling deal with Israel prior to the ceasefire of the offensive on the Gaza strip.
Asked by AFP about the existence of such an agreement, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki replied, “Absolutely not.
An Israeli government official had told the news agency that “Israel and Egypt have reached written understandings on security arrangements to prevent arms smuggling along the Gaza-Egypt border and deeper inside the Sinai Peninsula.
The supposed agreement was reached before the ceasefire, and was drummed out by IDF negotiator Amos Gilad and Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman, who met twice over the past week.
Israel had previously stated that it had halted its offensive only after securing agreements with Egypt and the United States about putting a stop to the border smuggling.
However, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit has insisted that Cairo is not bound by a US-Israel deal signed on Friday.
The US and Israel can “do what they wish with regard to the sea or any other country in Africa, but when it comes to Egyptian land, we are not bound by anything except the safety and national security of the Egyptian people and Egypt’s ability to protect its borders.
However, at the summit for Gaza which took place Sunday in Sharm El-Sheikh, Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa stressed that eradicating the tunnels – used predominantly for transporting essential goods into the strip – could not occur without lifting the blockade on Gaza.
“Talk of ending the smuggling must not exclude talk of opening the crossings, because the smuggling is a direct result of the blockade. People are desperate for anything by any way, he said. – Additional reporting by AFP.
