- The Media Line - https://themedialine.org -

Egypt Tries to Broker Cease-Fire Again

Egypt’s intelligence chief ‘Umar Suleiman will visit the Palestinian Authority in the next few days, according to Palestinian minister Nabil Sha’ath.

Suleiman is trying to broker a cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians. Should that fail Cairo is hoping the Palestinians will declare another unilateral cessation in violence.

So far Hamas and Islamic Jihad have led a group of some five organizations that are refusing to cooperate with Egypt.

The movements were among 13 that traveled to Egypt early in December to discuss a possible cease-fire, but The Media Line analysts say the five laid down conditions that were unacceptable to the remaining groups.

Two top Palestinian ministers were in Egypt over the weekend to try to advance the process and also to apologize for the attack on Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Mahir when he visited the Aq’sa Mosque in Jerusalem last week.

A group of worshippers began jostling Mahir and accused him of being a traitor to the Arab and Muslim cause, because he met top Israeli officials.