Egypt rejects calls to open border with war-battered Gaza
President Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday rejected calls to open Egypt”s border with war-battered Gaza and hit back at critics of Cairo”s response to the Israeli offensive, accusing them of playing politics with Palestinian suffering.
Mubarak said that Egypt would only reopen the crossing when the Islamist Hams movement which seized control of Gaza in June last year reconciled with Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and allowed him to reassert his authority over the territory.
He said the crossing in the divided border town of Rafah could only be fully opened to people and goods if an international agreement which Abbas signed with Israel when it withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005 is respected.
"We in Egypt are not going to contribute to perpetuating the rift (between Abbas and Gaza”s Hamas rulers) by opening the Rafah crossing in the absence of the Palestinian Authority and EU observers in violation of the 2005 deal," Mubarak said in a televised speech.
The deal provided for EU observers to monitor the border and operate surveillance cameras to allow Israel to keep an eye on comings and goings.
It fell into abeyance when Hamas ousted forces loyal to Abbas.
Egypt has come in for strong criticism from the Islamists and their sympathisers around the Muslim world for not fully opening the border in the face of Israel”s devastating four-day-old air blitz.
It has allowed a handful of wounded Gazans to leave for treatment and allowed some medical supplies in.
But on Sunday Egyptian police fired warning shots in the air to prevent large numbers of civilians fleeing Gaza.
Mubarak held talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni just two days before the start of the offensive, sparking charges of collusion that have seen Egyptian diplomatic missions attacked in both Beirut and the Yemeni port city of Aden.
Mubarak insisted that he was totally opposed to the Israeli operation.
"We say to Israel that we reject and condemn its assaults which must cease immediately," he said in the speech broadcast on state television.
"We say to our Palestinian brothers: restore your unity. We warned you several times that any refusal to renew the truce would push Israel to attack Gaza."
He was referring to a six-month truce between Israel and Hamas which Egypt brokered and which expired on December 19.
He hit out at Arab politicians like Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah who have slammed his government”s stance and called on the Egyptian people to take to the streets to change it.
"We say to those who are trying to make political capital out of the plight of the Palestinian people that Palestinian blood has a price," he said.
"We say loud and clear that Egypt is above such pettinesses and will not allow anyone to extend their influence over its affairs."
Lebanon, meanwhile, has tightened security around the Egyptian embassy in Beirut. The roads leading to the building have been blocked and the area surrounded by cement blocks and barbed wire.
A security official told AFP on condition of anonymity the measures were "preventative" in case of future protests in the area.