The Israeli daily Ma’ariv has reported that Egypt has rejected an Israeli request to upgrade relations between the two countries. According to the newspaper, Israel is doing its best to upgrade bilateral relations but Egypt’s president has been “ignoring Israel’s requests”.
Ma’ariv quoted a foreign diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, as saying: “Egyptian-Israeli relations are frozen and the Egyptian government will not accept any change or upgrade in the bilateral relations as the situation is very sensitive.”
Defence Minister Abdul-Fattah al-Sisi refused several telephone calls from his Israeli counterpart Ehud Barack, claims Ma’ariv. He also ignored a request from the General Manager of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Rafi Barack, to visit Cairo and meet his Egyptian counterpart.
Nevertheless, Israeli sources said that despite the diplomatic gap between the two sides, there are regular meetings between senior security officials, an indication of strict and continuous security cooperation between Cairo and Tel Aviv.