CAIRO: President Hosni Mubarak, hoping to negotiate a lasting truce between Israel and Hamas, has urged US President Barack Obama to make the Middle East his urgent priority.
This region is looking forward to your handling of the Palestinian cause from the first day of your tenure because it is an urgent priority and the key to all the other difficult crises in the Middle East, Mubarak said in a cable to congratulate Obama on his inauguration Tuesday.
Mubarak also told Obama he hopes the next phase will witness a new stage of fruitful consultations between us on the various issues of the Middle East, state-run MENA news agency reported.
US regional ally Egypt has invited Palestinian factions and Israeli officials for separate talks on Thursday to try to seal a lasting truce in Gaza, which Israel hammered for 22 days until declaring a unilateral ceasefire on Saturday.
Hamas has also announced a ceasefire and gave Israel a week to pull out its troops from the blockaded territory. Israel announced Wednesday it has withdrawn its last soldiers from Gaza and redeployed them around the enclave.
Operation Cast Lead which Israel says it launched to halt rocket attacks from the territory killed at least 1,300 Palestinians, including 410 children, and wounded another 5,300 people.
Mubarak proposed on Jan. 6 a truce plan that includes an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, followed by meetings with Palestinian and Israeli officials and a resumption of Palestinian reconciliation talks.
Obama plans this week to name former Northern Ireland peacemaker George Mitchell as his Middle East envoy to deal immediately with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to The Washington Post. -AFP
