CAIRO: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi yesterday blamed the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process for fuelling regional militancy, as Washington tries to shore up support to combat Islamic State jihadists.
Sisi, a former army chief who overthrew Islamist president Mohammed Mursi last year, is battling jihadist militants in the Sinai Peninsula who have killed scores of policemen and soldiers.
The retired field marshal has sought to link his oft-criticised campaign against Islamist opposition and militants with the fight against organisations such as the Islamic State, which controls swathes of Iraq and Syria.
Yesterday, however, he singled out the floundering peace process which he said contributed to a “fertile environment for the growth and spread of extremism, violence and terrorism.”
Long drawn out US-brokered negotiations between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israel collapsed in April with both sides blaming each other.
“What strengthens this environment, and gives excuses to those who exploit religion and terrorism, is the continuation of the Palestinian cause for decades without an equitable resolution,” his office quoted him as saying in a statement.
Egypt was the first Arab country that signed a peace deal with Israel, in 1979, but ties have remained chilly.
Sisi has been supportive of Abbas but hostile to the Hamas rulers of Gaza who have ties with the Muslim Brotherhood movement which he ousted from power.
During the latest Gaza conflict between Israel and Hamas, Egypt, a traditional mediator, at first proposed a ceasefire deal which Hamas charged was favourable to the Jewish state.
Hamas eventually agreed last week to another Egyptian proposal after more than a month of devastating fighting.
A senior army intelligence official has admitted that Israel underestimated the tenacity of Gaza militants and did not expect a 50-day conflict to last so long, but he insisted they were soundly beaten. The conflict, which ended with a ceasefire last week, killed more than 2,100 Palestinians, as well as 66 soldiers and six civilians on the Israeli side, in the bloodiest battle between the Jewish state and Gaza militants for years.
AFP
