The Egyptian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday rejected an Israeli proposal--made the day before by Israeli Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz--to completely sever all connections between the Gaza Strip and the Hebrew state and make Egypt fully responsible for the flow of goods and people in and out of the besieged territory. According to the proposal, prepared by Katz at the behest of Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, Israel would close all its land borders with the coastal enclave while allowing the Rafah border crossing to remain open under Egyptian supervision. Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki stated on Tuesday that Katz's proposal was "completely unacceptable, and reveals Israel's bad intentions in this regard." Zaki went on to assert that the proposal "confirms, beyond all doubt, what we've been saying for years--that there exists a line of thinking in the Israeli government that Israel should evade its responsibilities vis-a-vis Gaza by dumping the territory on Egypt." "Egypt has previously warned against the consequences of such a move, particularly in relation to the Palestinian issue," Zaki concluded. In related news, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met with President Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday in Sharm el-Sheikh to discuss recent developments related to the Palestinian file. In a press statement issued following the meeting, Abbas stressed that he had no objections to the formation of a "national transitional government, or a government composed of technocrats or independents," on the condition that Palestinian resistance faction Hamas first signed an Egypt-proposed inter-Palestinian reconciliation agreement. Abbas went on to note that "all of Hamas' demands, as well as those of other Palestinian factions, can be discussed while articles of the reconciliation agreement are being implemented." Translated from the Arabic Edition.
