Israel Receives First Contact From Egypt’s Mursi
Egypt’s President Mohamed Mursi told Israel on Tuesday he wanted to work for peace in the Middle East, in the first official message sent by the Arab state’s new Islamist leadership to the Jewish state.
Politicians in Israel had expressed alarm in private over the election of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mursi in June’s presidential vote and fear that over time their country’s peace treaty with Egypt could be eroded.
“I am looking forward to exerting our best efforts to get the Middle East peace process back to its right track in order to achieve security and stability for all peoples of the region, including (the) Israeli people,” Mursi said in the letter to Israeli President Shimon Peres.
A spokesman for Mursi in Cairo could not be reached for comment on the letter, written in English and released by the office of the Israeli president