BICOM

Egyptian and other Arabic media report that a senior Israeli delegation arrived in Egypt’s capital Cairo yesterday to further discuss the peace initiative suggested by Egypt’s President al-Sisi.

‎The London-based newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi, plus various Egyptian titles said that a high-ranking Israeli team flew from Israel’s Ben Gurion airport and stayed in Cairo for just a few hours. The German news agency DPA carried a similar report.

In May, President al-Sisi made a surprising public plea for Israel and the Palestinians to renew peace talks in the context of brokering a wider regional peace. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately endorsed al-Sisi’s initiative. It was reported last week that Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas had dropped his initial opposition to al-Sisi’s plan.

Meanwhile, al-Sisi himself spoke yesterday to newspaper editors in Cairo. He said that Israel is increasingly convinced of the need to reach a peace agreement with the PA. Al-Sisi also said that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin had offered to host talks between Netanyahu and Abbas.

In a separate reported development, Haaretz says that European officials have also been trying to arrange a meeting between Netanyahu and Abbas. However, the PA is insisting that such a meeting must be preceded by a preliminary meeting between senior Israeli and Palestinian negotiators, such as the PA’s Saeb Erekat and Israel’s Yitzchak Molcho. Israel regards a preliminary stage of talks as needless procrastination, designed by the PA to avoid real talks. Netanyahu has repeatedly publicly said that he is prepared to meet with Abbas anywhere, at any time, without any preconditions.

The Haaretz report also says that the PA insists the resumption of peace talks is conditional upon an Israeli construction freeze in the West Bank and the release of a number of Palestinian prisoners, who were set to be the final group of inmates released under a US-spearheaded round of talks, before it collapsed in April 2014.