Cairo, MINA – Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty called on Sunday for the start of negotiations for the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, predicting that the next phase would be challenging, Palestine Chronicle reported.
This comes amid fears of the agreement collapsing after Israel halted the entry of aid into Gaza and shelled various parts of the Gaza Strip.
During a joint press conference in Cairo with the European Union Commissioner for the Mediterranean, Dubravka Šuica, Abdelatty stated that the second phase must begin immediately. He noted that the first phase had ended successfully despite some difficulties.
He added that Egypt, Qatar, and what he described as “friends in the US administration” had managed to overcome these challenges.
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Regarding the next phase, Abdelatty said, “We must now move forward with negotiations on the second phase… It will naturally be difficult, but if there is goodwill and political will, it is certainly possible to agree on the second phase and work towards its implementation, leading to the third phase… and ultimately to a sustainable ceasefire.”
He emphasized the need for “faithful and complete implementation” of the ceasefire agreement by all relevant parties.
Abdelatty urged the European Union to exert more pressure on Israel to implement the Gaza ceasefire agreement, which has been in effect since January 19 of last year.
The Egyptian minister also condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to stop aid from entering Gaza, stating that using aid as a weapon for collective punishment and starvation in the Strip is unacceptable and impermissible. []
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