President Mahmoud Abbas has categorically denied reports that emerged this week in the media about a discussion he had with Egyptian president Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi on creating a Palestinian state in the Sinai Peninsula.
Abbas said in a meeting with Palestinian Authority officials in Ramallah on Thursday that the issue had never even been proposed and al-Sisi refuses the "unjustified" idea to begin with, Palestinian state news agency Wafa reported.
The comments come days after a media storm broke out after reports that Egypt had proposed that a Palestinian state be established in an area in Sinai reported to be five times larger than Gaza in exchange for the PLO renouncing any claims to the 1967 borders.
Abbas' office denied the rumors on Monday as based on old suggestions made by Israeli officials that neither Palestinians nor Egyptians had taken seriously.
Abbas did admit, however, that a scheme for a Sinai Palestinian state was proposed during the reign of former president Mohamed Morsi but was quickly abandoned.
Abbas said that past Egyptian leaders including al-Sisi in his post a defense minister and Hosni Mubarak before the 2011 revolution had both opposed any sale of land for a future Palestinian state.
He recounted one incident when deceased Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat asked for an area inside Sinai in order to continue the building of the Rafah airport near the airport, but Mubarak refused, saying that Egypt could not "give one centimeter of Egyptian land."
April 19th, 2024
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