Egypt ignores Nafeh visit to Cairo

The Egyptian neglect of the visit held by the Israeli minister Dani Nafeh has reflected the volume of the current crisis in the relations between Cairo and Tel Aviv. Nafeh had spent several hours in the Egyptian capital during which he met with the advisor of the Egyptian President for political affairs Osama al-Baz.

Nafeh visited the Israeli prisoner Azzam Azzam who is spending an imprisonment sentence of 15 years after he was convicted for spying for Israel by the end of 1996. Despite the fact that he has been jailed since 5 years, however, Azzam has been on the agenda of most of the Israeli- Egyptian talks and Cairo had repeatedly refused requests to free him.

Observers said that al-Baz's talks with Nafeh dealt with the report of Michael committee on the conditions in the Palestinian territories, the Egyptian- Jordanian initiative and the call for a new meeting in Sharm al-Sheikh.