CAIRO: The presidents of Egypt and Cyprus have agreed on the urgent need for the international community to push for a permanent ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.
Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and his Cypriot counterpart Nikos Christodoulides highlighted the requirement for immediate action during talks at the Ittihadiya Palace in Cairo.
Discussions also centered around ways to further strengthen cooperation between Egypt and Cyprus in several fields, particularly energy, while exploring opportunities to consolidate relations not only between the two countries, but Greece too.
But it was the situation in Gaza that dominated their meeting.
Spokesman for the Egyptian presidency, Ahmed Fahmy, said El-Sisi briefed Christodoulides on Egypt’s efforts to broker a permanent end to fighting in the Gaza Strip while ensuring the delivery of humanitarian aid to Palestinians.
Christodoulides noted that his country was keen to work with Egypt on both fronts and El-Sisi pointed out the need for a global consensus on bringing about a two-state solution to the conflict. This, he said, would involve the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Earlier, in a call from Christodoulides to El-Sisi, the latest developments in Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip were reviewed.
The two presidents agreed that international and regional efforts to stop an escalation of the fighting were the top priority.
