CAIRO: Egypt’s foreign minister Mohammed Amr said on Sunday that his country supported Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s bid to join peace talks with Israel once there is a settlement freeze.
"Egypt supports the Palestinian president’s commitment to the resumption of negotiations based on clear parameters and the halting of Israeli settlements," Amr said in a statement.
He was speaking after talks with Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat and the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, Riad Mansur, in Cairo.
The international Quartet which groups the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States, had urged the two sides to return to talks within a month, with the goal of reaching a deal before the end of 2012.
The Palestinians insist that they will not join negotiations without a settlement freeze and clear parameters for the talks.
On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had urged Egypt as well as the diplomatic Quartet to pressure the Palestinians and Israel to seek a peace deal.
