(AFP Photo)
Minister of Foreign Affairs Nabil Fahmy said in order to further the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations the Israeli side must stop “making negative policies and procedure that effect its course.”
Fahmy stressed this view during a meeting with the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Robert Serry on Monday morning. A ministry statement said that Fahmy pointed to the continuation of the Israeli “settlement activity” in the West Bank and “the policy of pursuing Palestinian activists.”
The spokesman for the ministry said in the statement, “Fahmy confirmed during the meeting that Egypt will continue to provide all possible forms of support for the Palestinian people and leadership to establish their own independent and sovereign state” along the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Fahmy also expressed that Egypt “rejects the policy imposing a siege on the Palestinian people.” He stressed that Israel “bears a legal and humanitarian responsibility as an occupying power to provide basic goods and materials for the residents of Gaza.” He also pointed out that the international community also has a responsibility and that Egypt is committed to achieving “Palestinian national reconciliation.”
Fahmy recently visited Ramallah to meet with the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank. He reiterated Egypt’s support for the Palestinian’s aspirations when he met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The minister also denounced the erection of new Israeli settlements in the West Bank saying that it showed Israeli “indifference” to the new round of negotiations between the conflicting sides.
The Israelis and Palestinians agreed to embark upon a fresh round of final status negotiations towards the end of July. The Palestinian side recently cancelled a meeting between negotiators after Israeli security forces shot dead three Palestinian men during clashes in the West Bank.
