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Ex-Egypt official: Israel did ask for land swap for peace with Palestinians

April 30, 2018 at 11:14 am

Former Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul-Gheit has for the first time confirmed that Israel has on numerous times requested land swaps in an effort to resolve the Palestine-Israel conflict, Arabi21 reported yesterday.

Aboul-Gheit, who is currently the secretary of the Arab League, revealed he witnessed the land swap request that was repeated four times. He did not say who else requested the land swap.

“There were some illusions between 2003 and 2006,” he said, while giving a speech for the Egyptian army marking the liberation of Sinai. “I was a witness to these requests when I was a foreign minister. They said: Let’s exchange lands with you.”

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Several times Israeli officials, analysts and Arab researchers and writers have spoken about land exchange between Israel and Egypt as part of the peace process to resolve the Israel-Palestine issue.

Israel has never officially confirmed this and Egypt has never recognised it.

The revelation comes at a time when the US is putting the final touches on its “deal of the century” to resolve the 70-year-old conflict. It is expected that the transfer of Palestinians to Sinai will be one of the terms of America’s peace deal.