AL QUDS, Nov 18: The chairman of the Israeli parliament’s powerful foreign affairs and defence committee on Tuesday rejected Cairo’s mediation in the search for an Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire, reflecting the uneasy relationship between the neighbouring countries.

Yuval Steinitz, an MP from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Likud party, accused Egypt of hostility to both Israel and the peace process as Palestinian premier Ahmed Qorei revealed that armed groups behind hundreds of attacks against Israel had been invited to Cairo in a bid to persuade them to call a truce.

“What’s happening is particularly serious because a factor hostile to Israel has entered the Palestinian domain, and it is equally hostile, in my opinion, to the peace process and that is Egypt,” said Steinitz.

Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman held talks with Palestinian leaders on Monday as part of efforts to broker a ceasefire while one of his aides is to meet representatives of factions such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad in their Gaza stronghold on Wednesday.

Suleiman was also instrumental in securing an earlier truce, or hudna, which collapsed in August.

But Steinitz warned that “if the new hudna allows Egypt to increase its influence within the Palestinian Authority and the terrorist organisations such as Hamas, then the long-term strategic consequences will be more dangerous for Israel.”—AFP