Israel's Netanyahu meets Egypt's Sisi in New York

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today that he spoke to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Netanyahu’s talks with Al-Sisi late yesterday focused on “regional developments”, Netanyahu wrote on Twitter.

Egypt has been working to broker a long-term ceasefire between Israel and Hamas after more than 200 Palestinians were killed while taking part in peaceful protests in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Egypt was the first of a handful of Arab countries to recognise Israel under a 1979 peace treaty and the two countries maintain close co-ordination on security as well as energy ties.

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Israeli and Egyptian companies today announced that they would buy into a pipeline that would enable a landmark $15 billion natural gas export deal to begin next year.

Netanyahu and Al-Sisi convened for their previously announced talks several hours after US President Donald Trump said he wanted a two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in what had appeared to be the clearest expression yet of his administration’s support for such an outcome.

But later Trump told a news conference that he would be open to a one-state solution if that was the preference of the parties themselves, a position he had previously stated.

In a statement, Netanyahu said he was confident that a promised US peace plan would back Israel’s demand to maintain security control of the West Bank; territory it occupied in a 1967 war and which Palestinians seek as part of a future state.

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