President Shimon Peres is meeting in Cairo Sunday morning with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at the presidential palace. The two leaders are set to discuss "recent developments in the Middle East peace process between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and bilateral issues concerning Israel and Egypt," according to a Peres spokesperson.
It is expected that both will speak with reporters following the meeting, and prior to a lunch at the palace with senior Egyptian and government officials, hosted by Mubarak. Although the issue of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit was not officially mentioned in press briefings, it is expected that the matter will be raised at some point during the meeting.
Peres met with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday to coordinate the president’s diplomatic approach on the issues expected to be raised. The president is expected back in Israel by Sunday afternoon.
Mubarak had sharp words for Israel on Saturday in an address to the new Egyptian legislature, according to the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA). The Egyptian president accused the Netanyahu administration of "placing new obstacles in the path to peace through [the] call to recognize the Jewish character of the state, to negotiate on interim borders for the Palestinian state and ruling out [Jerusalem] from the final status negotiations." He also called on Israel to open the crossings into Gaza, which remain closed due to security concerns, including the continued captivity of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.
Similar complaints were heard last week from Jordanian King Abdullah II during talks with U.S. Jewish leaders at the Royal Court in Amman.
Abdullah urged representatives of the American Jewish Congress to support the establishment of a Palestinian state under the 2002 Saudi peace initiative, which calls for Israel's withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders and immigration into Israel of Arabs who claim pre-1948 ancestry in Israel. The plan includes the establishment of a large part of Jerusalem as the capital of the new Palestinian state.