Morsi Says Israel 'Aggression' in Gaza Unacceptable
Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi rejected on Thursday what he called Israel's aggression in Gaza, saying it threatened to destabilize the region, while Cairo called on the US to stop Israel's strikes.
"The Israelis must understand that we do not accept this aggression, which can only lead to instability in the region," Morsi said in televised remarks, as Israeli air forces pummeled Gaza and militants fired rockets back in a deadly tit for tat.
Egypt's Islamist administration, which has close ties with Gaza's ruling Hamas movement, recalled its ambassador on Wednesday in protest at the Israeli operation, which began with the targeted killing of a top Hamas military commander.
In an earlier telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr "called on the United States to immediately intervene to bring to an end the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza," the ministry said in a statement.
"As long as the Israeli aggression continues, the situation will worsen in a way that will make it uncontrollable," Amr told Clinton late Wednesday.
He called on Washington to "use its contacts with Israel to bring to an end this aggression."
Morsi, meanwhile, has asked the foreign ministry to summon the Israeli ambassador to Cairo and to organize an emergency meeting on Saturday of foreign ministers of countries belonging to the Arab League, which is based in Cairo.
Egypt, which in 1979 became the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel, previously withdrew its ambassador after a Palestinian uprising that began in 2000, when president Hosni Mubarak was still in power.
Cairo often plays a mediator role between Israel and the Palestinian movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, whenever violence erupts between the two sides.
Morsi, an Islamist elected in June after Mubarak's overthrow in 2011, has promised to take a harder line on Israel than his predecessor, who was accused of doing little to stop the Jewish state's devastating assault on Gaza in December 2008-January 2009.
Source: Agence France Presse
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