Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said late on Monday that the Egyptian president had invited the Israeli leader to meet, despite tensions between the two countries at the beginning of Netanyahu’s term.
The statement late on Monday said Netanyahu and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak talked by telephone and Mubarak invited Netanyahu to the Egyptian Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheik for talks. No date was set.
A statement from the official Egyptian news agency on the conversation did not mention an invitation. It said Netanyahu called Mubarak and pledged to work for peace “despite premeditated impressions,” a reference to the new Israeli leader’s past opposition to concessions to the Palestinians.
A Netanyahu-Mubarak meeting could thaw a developing diplomatic freeze around the new Israeli government because of its hawkish makeup and past records of some of its main ministers.
Egypt is reported to be boycotting Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman for publicly cursing Mubarak last year because Mubarak has not made an official visit to Israel.
The Israeli statement said the two leaders agreed to strengthen relations between the countries. In 1979, Egypt became the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel.
Meanwhile, Israel sealed off the West Bank on Monday night for two weeks to curb Palestinian attacks during the Jewish Passover holidays, a military spokesman said.
“The Israeli army considers the holiday periods as very sensitive from the point of view of security,” the spokesman said, announcing that the closure would run until April 19.
“The army will reinforce its state of alert so as to ensure the security of Israeli citizens, while not disrupting, in so far as possible, the daily lives of the Palestinian population,” he said.
Yesterday, Israeli police started demolishing the home of a Palestinian who killed three Israelis in a bulldozer rampage last July.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said yesterday’s demolition was being carried out under heavy police guard.
The Israeli government said such measures deter would-be attackers. The country’s Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that the demolition could go ahead.
A 30-year-old father of two, Hussam Dwayat took his construction vehicle on a rampage down Jerusalem’s Jaffa Road on July 2. He killed three Israelis before an off-duty soldier shot him dead.
The assault was followed by two similar bulldozer attacks carried out by Palestinians in Jerusalem. No Israelis were killed in the later incidents.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS