El-Sisi will not visit White House if Gaza displacement on agenda: Report
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi will not travel to the US for talks if the agenda includes Trump’s plan to displace Palestinians from Gaza, two Egyptian security sources have told Reuters.
In a call between Trump and el-Sisi on February 1, the US president extended an open invitation to his Egyptian counterpart to visit the White House, the Egyptian presidency previously said.
No date has been set for any such visit, a US official said.
The Egyptian Presidency and Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment, Reuters reported.
Egypt and Qatar intensifying efforts to save ceasefire, Egyptian state media says
Egyptian and Qatari mediators are involved in high-level diplomatic efforts to try to save the Gaza ceasefire, amid increasing US and Israeli pressure to resume the war if Hamas does not release more captives by Saturday, the Egyptian state-linked TV channel Al-Qahera News has reported.
Quoting an unnamed Egyptian source, the channel reported that mediators are seeking to find a way that “ensures the implementation of the agreement in a balanced manner and maintains calm to avoid a new escalation that could lead to more losses”.
‘Trump put the seeds and Israel took advantage of the opportunity’
Gideon Levy, a columnist with the Israeli daily Haaretz, says the “unbelievable declaration of President Trump threatening the Palestinians” with “hell” is making the situation “very dangerous”.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Levy said Israel immediately used Trump’s remarks for its own objectives in Gaza.
“This is very explosive,” he said, warning that the consequences this time could be “even more horrible than in the first 15 months” of the war.
“So Trump put the seeds and Israel took advantage of the opportunity because Israel is not interested in ceasing the war – and we are facing now a very sensitive moment,” Levy added.
“If the war will be renewed with the support of Donald Trump, I would even say with the push of Donald Trump, this means that Israel will this time have no restrictions,” he said, noting that the US president had now become the “spiritual and moral compass of Israel”.
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