Egypt gears up to push for resumption of Mideast peace talks

Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said Sunday in an official visit to Israel that Israelis and the Palestinians must resume peace talks before their decades-long conflict escalates.

Shoukry arrived in Israel on the same day, in a first visit by an Egyptian foreign minister to Israel since 2007, and made the statements to reporters prior to his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"My visit comes amid the vision of President (Abdel Fattah al-) Sisi to achieve peace between the Israeli and Palestinian people and to bring this conflict to an end," Shoukry told reporters.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said in May that there's a "real chance" to resume peace talks and achieve a deal between Israel and the Palestinians, with the mediation of Arab countries, led by Egypt.

The Egyptian initiative is based on the 2002 Saudi Peace Initiative, according to which Arab states will sign peace deals with Israel if it ends its conflict with the Palestinians with a peace accord.

The latest round of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians ended in April 2014 without results.

The Egyptian official also said that the peace process is at a "critical juncture" as the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians continues for more than half a century, and after a ten-month wave of violence killed 34 Israelis and 214 Palestinians.

"The current situation can shatter the hopes of the Palestinians for a Palestinian state, with a capital in east Jerusalem, and smash the ambitions of millions of Israelis to live in peace and security," Shoukry said.

He added that peace between Israelis and Palestinians "would have dramatic and positive results and on the situation in the entire Middle East," and warned of maintaining the status quo, which might ignite further escalation.

Israel occupied the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip territories in the 1967 Mideast War. Those territories are where millions of Palestinians live and wish to establish a Palestinian state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on his end, welcomed once more Sisi's statements from May and his "efforts to pursue peace with the Palestinians," which he agreed would have positive effects on the region as a whole.

Netanyahu called upon the Palestinians to resume direct negotiations, adding that it is "the only way in which we could discuss all the outstanding issues between us and turn the vision of peace based on the two-state solution a reality."

Shoukry's visit was orchestrated by Netanyahu's confidant Isaac Molcho, who traveled to Egypt in recent weeks and met with Egyptian officials, the Ha'aretz daily reported.

Netanyahu and other Israeli officials have expressed their appreciation of Al-Sisi's statements from May and stressed the importance of involvement of Arab states in the region in attempts to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in recent months.

These statements are made amid a French peace initiative to hold an international conference later this year to restart peace talks.

Israel rejects the initiative, saying that an international forum would enable Palestinians to "allude" direct talks, whereas the Palestinians support the French plan and say Israel wants to stall time in endless negotiations.

Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty in 1979. The countries had since cooperated on security and diplomatic affairs.

However, relations of the two countries soured in 2012, when Israel embarked on a military operation in the Gaza Strip enclave, ruled by the Hamas Islamist Group.

Egypt, then ruled by Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammad Morsi, recalled its ambassador from Israel in protest of the country's moves.

The situation changed since al-Sisi took power, with a new Egyptian ambassador presented his credentials to the Israeli President in place in February. Endit