Egyptian leader asks President Trump to lead efforts for regional peace
President Abdel Fattah El Sisi called on Saturday for the establishment of a Palestinian state on the June 1967 lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Addressing the 34th Arab League summit in Baghdad, Iraq, the Egyptian leader added that peace would continue to be difficult to obtain in the region, even if Israel had hammered out peace treaties with all Arab states, without the establishment of this Palestinian state.
“Our Summit is being held today, at a historic time, when our region is facing complex challenges and unprecedented circumstances,” President Sisi said.
He added that these complex challenges make it necessary for all Arabs to stand united.
This unity, he said, is important for preserving Arab security and protecting Arab rights and capabilities.
“It is no secret that the Palestinian issue is going through one of its most dangerous and delicate stages,” President Sisi said.
“The Palestinian people have been subjected to systematic crimes and brutal practices for more than a year and a half aimed at obliterating and exterminating them and ending their existence in the Gaza Strip,” he added.
He noted that Gaza was subjectedto a large-scale destruction processto make it unviable in an attempt to push its people to be displaced, and forcibly leave it under the horrors of war.
The Israeli war machine, the Egyptian leader said, has destroyed everything in Gaza and targeted everybody in this Palestinian territory.
“It has taken starvation and the denial of health services as a weapon, and destruction as an approach,” he said.
“Thisledto the displacement of almost2 millionPalestiniansinsideGaza, in blatant defiance of all international laws and norms,” he added.
He thanked US President Donald Trump for striking a ceasefire in Gaza in January.
This ceasefire did not, however, withstand the renewed Israeli aggression in an attempt to abort any efforts towards stability, the Egyptian leader said.
He called on President Trump, a leader who aims to consolidate peace, to exert all the necessary efforts and pressure to bring about a ceasefire in Gaza in preparation for launching a serious political process that opens the door for lasting peace.
