CAIRO: Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit laid the blame for the impasse in the peace process squarely at the door of Israel during a visit to Russia, the MENA news agency reported.
Speaking to the Russian newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta Aboul Gheit said that Israel refused to take any concrete steps towards moving the process forward and settling the conflict.
Aboul Gheit also said on Thursday that the international community needs to push Israel to accept a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict. He urged the international community to take responsibility for obliging Israel to accept a two-state solution and take tangible steps towards its implementation, spokesman Hossam Zaki said in a statement.
The minister also urged Israel to stop settlement activity.
Asked to comment on Israel’s consideration of a strike against Iran, the foreign minister said he hoped Israel would respond to US President Barack Obama’s request not to consider military action of any kind against the Persian country.
Aboul Gheit was in Russia primarily to discuss an invitation from President Hosni Mubarak to its Prime Minister Dimitri Medvedev to visit Egypt in June as well as a series of bilateral issues.
Foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said in a statement that Egypt was aiming to improve bilateral relations with Russia to the extent it would reach the level of a “strategic partnership.
Aboul Gheit also met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during his visit where they discussed “means of promoting bilateral relations, specially boosting economic cooperation throughout particular projects, encouraging the private sector of both countries to be the driving locomotive towards growing trade, in the light of the common interests in holding developmental projects according to the market mechanisms, Zaki said. – Daily News Egypt with agencies
