Israeli Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livin, signaled Saturday possibility of Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank for creation of a Palestinian state within a peace deal.
Livni’s remarks came in an interview with the semi-official Egyptian newspaper of Al-Ahram during her visit to Cairo on Friday, where she met with President Mubarak, FM Ahmad Abuelgheit and Jordan’s FM Abdelilah Elkhatib.
Livni was quoted as saying “Israel does not intend to control over the Palestinians”.
The Israeli FM’s meetings in Cairo came ahead of a meeting between Egyptian-Jordanian FMs with Israeli officials over the Arab peace proposal, which calls for Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and East Jerusalem along with other Arab territories, Israel captured in 1967, right after the six-day Arab-Israeli war.
Underway Arab peace efforts came as a part of the Arab peace initiative of 2002, which was renewed during the Arab states summit in March in the Saudi Arabian city of Riyadh.
President Mubarak stressed that the foreign ministers’ delegation will be dispatched in due time, refuting rumors about delay, in light of the current Israeli political crisis that emerged after Winongrad report on Israel’s handling of last summer war on Lebanon.
Livni discussed with the Egyptian leaders the internal unrest in the Gaza Strip, calling for bolstering ‘moderate’ Palestinians’.
