Al Sissi, Blair discuss Gaza offensive

Cairo: Egyptian President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi and Middle East peace envoy Tony Blair on Saturday discussed Israel’s deadly bombings of the Palestinian Gaza Strip and efforts to halt the violence, state media reported.

Al Sissi reviewed with Blair “Egyptian contacts with the Palestinian and Israeli sides and the stubbornness they are facing,” a presidential spokesman said. “The president has warned of the serious risks of military escalation.”

Blair, a former British prime minister, arrived in Cairo from Tel Aviv where he met senior Israel officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has vowed to resist international pressure to stop the onslaught on Gaza.

Egypt, which has diplomatic relations with Israel, played a central role in mediating truces between Palestinians and Israelis in the past. However, ties between Cairo and Hamas, which controls Gaza, have been tense since the military toppled president Mohammad Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Egyptian media has repeatedly charged that Hamas, a Brotherhood affiliate, is involved in the unrest that Egypt has seen since Mursi’s overthrow, an accusation vehemently denied by the Palestinian group.

Egypt on Thursday reopened the Rafah border crossing, Egypt’s only outlet with the outside world, to take in Palestinians wounded in the Israel airstrikes and allow humanitarian aid into the impoverished enclave.

Egypt’s Foreign Ministry on Friday denied accusations that the country has not done enough to broker a fresh ceasefire between Israel and Hamas allegedly due to the latter’s strained links with Cairo.

Meanwhile, the Cairo-based Arab League said Arab foreign ministers will hold an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss the Israeli onslaught on Gaza that has killed more than 127 in five days.

The meeting has been requested by Kuwait, the rotating president of the pan-Arab organisation’s board.