Egypt will return its Ambassador to Israel only after “a total and unconditional” withdrawal of all Israeli forces from south Lebanon, according to the Egyptian Foreign Minister.
Esmet Abdel Meguid said in a press interview published here today that Israel must fulfill three conditions before Egypt will resume full diplomatic relations on an Ambassadorial level. The Egyptian Ambassador in Israel was recalled to Cairo in September 1982 after the Sabra and Shatila massacres.
The Minister, who met with President Francois Mitterrand today, told the French daily Le Quotidien that the other two prior conditions Israel must fulfill before the return of the Egyptian Ambassador are:
“Substantial progress on the way to a settlement of the Palestinian question” and an Israeli withdrawal from the Taba enclosure, a small enclave near Eilat which Cairo claims as Egyptian territory.
Today’s statement was the first major foreign policy declaration by Abdel Meguid since his appointment as Egyptian Foreign Minister last month.
The minister reasserted Egypt’s stand recognizing the PLO as “the sole representatives of the Palestinian people” and called on the forthcoming Israeli government to change Israel’s former interpretation of the Camp David agreements which, Abdel Meguid called “a negative and unacceptable approach.”
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