Abu Mazen becomes his own people’s butcher: Abbas rejects free trade zone with Egypt, calls to shut tunnels
August 4, 2013 
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Al Ray Agencies | Aug 4, 2013
Gaza, Alray – Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas
refused on Monday evening the establishment of a free trade zone
between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.
Abbas explained during a meeting with representatives of
Egyptian local media in Cairo “this had not been previously discussed;
the authority refuses to take one centimeter of any Arab state.”
In the one-day visit, he underlined to Egypt’s interim
president Adli Mansour the depth of the Egyptian-Palestinian relations,
as quoted by the PA news agency “Wafa” Tuesday morning.
Abbas said that goods should be transmitted into Gaza
through the normal crossings which he described as “legitimate”,
rejecting the recourse to Gaza-Egypt tunnels which, he pointed out, he
he asked seven years ago to be shut down provided that access of
essential needs and basic supplies to Gaza Strip is not affected.
“We are ready to go back to apply the 2005 agreement so
that there would be a crossing for individuals and another for goods in
agreement of Egypt, Israel, and us,” he said, adding “I hope that tunnels are closed soon to start end the suffering of our people in the Gaza Strip.”
I am sorry, but can someone exp0lain to me why agreeing to a Free Trade Agreement between Egypt and the Palestinian Gaza Strip is dismissed? Especially while such an Free Trade Agreement between parties would mean an acknowledgement by Egypt of the Palestinian State!
ReplyDeleteIt would mean that one important party in the region, Egypt, would acknowledge the sovereignty of the Palestinian State, by signing an agreement with it...... without the direct interference of the state of Israel.
And were one state makes such an acknowledgement other states will follow! What about the European Union? When Egypt would agree to such an agreement, the EU could follow, as there is already acknowledgement by the EU of the illegality of the development of Israeli settlements.......