Egypt's Sisi meets Israeli PM at UN for first public talks
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu publicly for the first time in New York to discuss Middle East peace after US President Donald Trump said he would push for resuming stalled negotiations.
Monday's meeting, which follows mediation in Cairo between Palestinian arch-rivals Fatah and Hamas, reflects Egypt's will to return to the forefront of the Middle East diplomatic scene.
The two met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which has been at a standstill since 2014, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement yesterday.
Sisi emphasised the importance of "resuming negotiations between the Israeli and Palestinian sides to reach a comprehensive solution," the presidency said.
The two leaders discussed "ways to resume the peace process and establish a Palestinian state," it said.
Trump also met Netanyahu on Monday, and repeated that an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal was "possible", saying his administration would do its utmost to push it.
Sisi has been involved in secret talks with the Israeli premier in the past.
The Egyptian president joined Netanyahu for talks with then US secretary of state John Kerry hosted by King Abdullah II in the Jordanian city of Aqaba in February 2016, a former US official confirmed to AFP earlier this year.
Monday's meeting followed a rare phone conversation earlier in the day between Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas of Fatah and Hamas chief Ismail Haniya following Egyptian-mediated reconciliation talks.
Abbas's internationally recognised Palestinian Authority is located in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, but it has had no control in Gaza for a decade -- after the Islamist movement Hamas seized the territory in a near civil war in 2007.
After Haniya met Egyptian officials in Cairo last week, Hamas announced it agreed to demands by Fatah to dissolve what is seen as a rival administration in Gaza, while saying it was ready for elections and negotiations to form a unity government.
The developments signalled a shift in Egypt's approach to the Islamist Palestinian group following years of tensions with Cairo accusing Hamas of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood group.
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