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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Egypt: Meeting blocked between top Arab and Israeli official |
| 2008-12-16 |
| (AKI) - Egyptian security officials are reported to have prevented a top Israeli defence official from meeting the Secretary-General of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, in Cairo. The local daily, al-Misr al-Youm, said that Amos Gilad, advisor to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, had sought to meet Moussa (photo) while both were passing through the airport. Security officials were apparently trying to avoid a repeat of the recent controversy when Egyptian cleric Sheikh Mohammad Sayyid Tantawi shook hands with Israeli President Shimon Peres. Sheikh Mohammad Sayyid Tantawi who is the head of Egypt's al-Azhar University, came under fire from the Muslim Brotherhood after he greeted the Israeli president at a United Nations interfaith conference in New York in November. Gilad conducted negotiations for Israel's troubled truce with Hamas which took effect from June 19. He returned to Cairo on Sunday for talks with Egyptian mediators but denied he was there to discuss renewing the truce. "When we accepted a lull six months ago it was clearly understood that there was no end date," Gilad told Israeli public radio on Monday. "For Israel, the date December 19 has no significance." The Israeli army had taken advantage of the truce to make preparations for a possible operation into Gaza, said Gilad. But he warned against any attempt by Israel to take back control of the territory. Hamas political supremo Khaled Meshal said in a television interview from Damascus with Hamas's Al-Quds satellite television on Sunday: "The truce was limited to six months and ends on December 19." |
| Posted by:Fred |