Egyptian parliament speaker sends letter to Knesset 'in Tel Aviv'

Jerusalem Post ^ | Dec. 5, 2004 | NINA GILBERT

[yonif]

Despite expectations of warming ties between Jerusalem and Cairo, Egyptian People's Assembly Speaker Ahmed Fathi Sorour last week listed Tel Aviv as the address for an official letter to his counterpart, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin.

The letter was in response to a dispatch from Rivlin reflecting on the Knesset's October 26 decision to endorse Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan.

Rivlin intends to send Sorour a response on Monday in which he will thank him for the letter, addressed to him in Tel Aviv, but note that he "surely" is aware that Israel's parliament is located in Jerusalem – the capital of Israel – where president Anwar Sadat delivered an address, according to Rivlin's Knesset bureau.

Knesset spokesman Giora Pordes said Sorour's letter reached the Knesset via the Foreign Ministry's diplomatic mail service.

In the letter, Sorour said the Egyptian People's Assembly members are "united on the Palestinian question," and believe that Israel must withdraw to the 1967 lines and dismantle all settlements. They do not view such a withdrawal as "territorial concessions," since one does not concede on what one does not possess.

Last March, Sorour declined an invitation by Rivlin to address the Knesset to mark the 25th anniversary of the Israel-Egypt peace treaty. Instead, he decided to send a lower-level parliamentary delegation headed by the chairman of the assembly's foreign affairs committee. That mission was ultimately scrapped following Israel's assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

In Sorour's rejection of Rivlin's invitation, he said he could not visit the Knesset until Israel makes peace with the Palestinians. But he pledged to send a delegation from the assembly on another occasion.

[SunkenCiv]

War is coming.

[ElkGroveDan]

Give them credit for a bit of wit.