2023-10-07 20:54:51
They seem to want to act as mediators. Egypt and France discussed Saturday coordinating efforts to “end the escalation” in the Gaza Strip, after Hamas launched an offensive against Israel, which responded with strikes on the enclave Palestinian.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron discussed, during a telephone interview, the “coordination of efforts to end the escalation in the Gaza Strip between the Palestinian parties and Israeli,” indicated the Egyptian presidency. Sissi notably “warned of the danger of seeing the situation deteriorate and descend into violence, of witnessing a worsening of humanitarian conditions in Gaza and of seeing the region enter a vicious circle of tensions threatening stability and peace. regional security,” according to its spokesperson.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had called earlier, on Saturday, “both the Palestinians and the Israelis to exercise the utmost restraint” and warned of “the serious danger of the ongoing escalation”.
Jordan and United Arab Emirates also attentive
During a telephone exchange, the head of Egyptian diplomacy, Sameh Shoukry, and his Jordanian counterpart, Ayman Safadi, “expressed their deep concern at the progressive and dangerous deterioration of events”. Safadi warned in a separate statement of the “volatility” of the situation, “especially in light of Israeli attacks and violations against the Palestinian people witnessed in West Bank cities and regions.”
Cairo is a traditional mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Jordan and Egypt were the first two countries in the region to conclude peace agreements with Israel, before the country experienced a wave of diplomatic normalization in recent years, notably with the United Arab Emirates and Morocco.
On Saturday, Shoukry discussed with UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan “the seriousness of the current situation and the need to do everything possible to prevent the security situation from spiraling out of control “.
The Hamas attack, which follows months of escalating violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has sparked a wave of condemnation around the world, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen calling it ” terrorism in its most despicable form” and believing that Israel had “the right to defend itself”.
Egypt also called on the international community “to urge Israel to end attacks and provocative actions against the Palestinian people and to adhere to the principles of international humanitarian law regarding the responsibilities of an occupying state.”
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