Report: Former Egyptian leader agreed to resettle Palestinians in Sinai - Daniel Siryoti

by Daniel Siryoti

Secret documents obtained by BBC reveal ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak agreed to stipulation in 1983 as part of wider deal to end Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak

Photo: Reuters

In 1983, then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak agreed to resettle Palestinians inside his country at the request of the Americans more than 30 years ago, newly discovered documents revealed Wednesday.

According to secret documents obtained by the BBC, Mubarak agreed to the American request on the condition it would be part of a comprehensive resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Mubarak relayed the information to then-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in a meeting between the two leaders that took place after Mubarak met with U.S. President Ronald Reagan in February of 1983.

Reagan won the U.S. presidential elections mere months after the start of the First Lebanon War, which broke out in 1982 when Israel invaded southern Lebanon with the aim of removing Palestine Liberation Forces from Beirut following the organization's repeated attacks on the Israel Defense Forces.

According to the BBC report, British authorities had feared Palestinian agents would attempt to assassinate Mubarak during a visit to London during the 1982 war.

Mubarak, who was ousted in the 2011 revolution and detained for six years in a military hospital before being released in early 2017, rejected the claims in a post on his supporters' Facebook page.

"I never agreed to give up even one grain of Egyptian land. Moreover, I rejected a similar offer from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2010 to resettle Palestinians in the Sinai Peninsula, and I told him to not even dare contemplate such an idea."

The report came just as Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi ordered his new Chief of Staff Mahmoud Hegazy to secure the Sinai Peninsula within three months following a deadly attack on a Sufi mosque near Arish that killed over 300 people.

According to Egyptian reports, Israel has authorized a request from Cairo to allow Egyptian forces to enter northern Sinai as part of the country's efforts to eradicate terrorism in the tumultuous region. According to the military appendix of the 1979 Camp David Accords between the two countries, Egypt is forbidden from building up a military presence near its border with Israel.

Daniel Siryoti

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/2017/11/30/report-former-egyptian-leader-agreed-to-resettle-palestinians-in-sinai/

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