Jerusalem Old City
Jerusalem Old CityIsrael news photo: Flash 90

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, who tells the United States he wants to talk with Israel, met with Islamic Jihad leaders in Egypt who also were hosted by a Cairo Muslim cleric who said, “Jerusalem, the capital of Palestine, is the red line for 800 million Arabs.”

Al-Azhar Sheikh Ahmad Al-Tayeb, the grand Imam of Cairo's al-Azhar mosque, welcomed Islamic Jihad secretary-general Ramadan Shalah and his deputy Ziad Al-Nakhala.

They discussed with Abbas reinforcing unity among PA parties, the arrests of Islamic Jihad terrorists and the “resistance movement” against Israel. The meeting was reported and translated into English by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

Shalah and his deputy condemned statements by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Jerusalem as the united capital of Israel, and asserted that Egypt will not abandon a single inch of “Muslim lands.”

Al-Tayeb charged that the United States supports Israel’s plans to “plunder the lands and places sacred to Islam.”

Shalah said that Imam Al-Azhar is the “spearhead of the defense of the Islamic holy sites.”