CAIRO: Egypt's foreign minister said on Friday that statehood was the Palestinians' "rightful due" after president Mahmoud Abbas petitioned the United Nations to accept a Palestinian state as a member. "Egypt supports this step and will continue to exert utmost efforts to lobby for international support," Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr said. He said Egypt considered the bid a "rightful due after the struggle of the Palestinian people." Earlier, Abbas handed over a formal request asking the United Nations to admit Palestine as a member state on the basis of the 1967 borders. Amr said Egypt had rallied several nations in recent weeks to support the Palestinians' request. Under the regime of ousted president Hosni Mubarak, Egypt had tried and failed to broker a reconciliation deal between rival Palestinian factions. Unity efforts were revived in June by the country's military rulers who are under popular pressure to show more support for the Palestinians. Egypt has also seen strained relations with Israel since a Sept. 9 attack on the embassy in Cairo that forced the evacuation of its staff including the ambassador. Egyptians had been protesting regularly outside the embassy since mid-August when six Egyptian soldiers were killed on the border by Israeli fire.
