PM Netanyahu urges Mursi to honour Israel-Egypt peace treaty

AFP PHOTO

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Mursi (C) waves at his supporters after the announcement of presidential election results at the electoral headquarters in Cairo on June 18, 2012.

JERUSALEM, Sunday

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appealed to Egypt’s new President Mohammed Mursi to honour the 1978 peace treaty between the two nations, officials told Xinhua Sunday.

In a personal letter sent last week, Netanyahu “expressed hope for cooperation and for strengthening the peace treaty and peaceful relation between both countries” as part of the Camp David Accords, which ended 30 years of conflict, according to the Ha’aretz daily.

He also wished Mursi and the Egyptian people luck, it said. Mursi, who was sworn in on Saturday, has emphasised “Egypt’s commitment to international treaties and agreements.”

Besides the letter delivered via the Israeli embassy in Cairo, the Israeli Prime Minister also sent his personal envoy Issac Molcho to meet with Egyptian military intelligence chief and other senior security officials, according to the report.

“It’s appropriate that there will be the opening of a channel of communication,” Israeli foreign ministry’s deputy spokesman Paul Hirschon said.

“We have diplomatic and commercial relations, both of which are founded on the peace treaty.

“We’ve got communication with the Egyptians that’s been going on all the time, with our ambassador there,” he added.

In March, the Egyptian parliament unanimously approved a document demanding “the expulsion from Egypt of the Israeli ambassador (Yaakov Amitai) and the recall of Egypt’s envoy from Tel Aviv.”

Hirschon said that after mobs ransacked the Israeli embassy in Cairo last September, Israeli diplomats “were working in a temporary location” until a site for a new embassy was decided upon.

Dispersed mobs

During the riots, then Israeli ambassador to Egypt Yitzhak Levanon, along with some 80 diplomats and their families, was airlifted home overnight, while six security officers remained trapped in the building until Egyptian commandos dispersed the mobs.

Meanwhile, Mursi began his first full day in office on Sunday, but with his powers sharply circumscribed by the military that has ruled since Hosni Mubarak was ousted from power last year.

After being sworn in as the country’s first freely elected civilian president, Mursi formally received a transfer of power and pledge of support from the military.

But the 60-year-old’s swearing-in ceremony took place at the constitutional court in Cairo, despite Mursi’s wish that it takes place before the now disbanded Islamist-led parliament.

The military dissolved parliament last month following a court order in what the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, from which Mursi stood down after his election, described as a “soft coup.”