CAIRO (Dispatches) – Zionist prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu lobbied EU leaders to pressure Egypt into accepting refugees from Gaza, the Financial Times has reported.
The British paper said EU members, including the Czech Republic and Austria, had floated the idea at a meeting of member states last week, although a number of European countries including the UK, Germany and France have said separately that the idea is a non-starter as Egypt has categorically refused to accept Palestinian refugees.
An unnamed diplomat from an unnamed country, however, told the FT that the pressure of the Zionist regime’s continued assault on Gaza could shift Cairo’s stance.
“Now is the time to put increased pressure on the Egyptians to agree,” the official said.
Despite Netanyahu’s calls, the leaders ultimately agreed that Egypt’s role should be the delivery of humanitarian aid, as the Rafah crossing into the Sinai region is currently the only route for aid to enter the besieged Gaza Strip, but that Egypt is not obligated to accept an influx of refugees.
This comes shortly after an Israeli intelligence ministry document was leaked to the Israeli news site Calcalist; it detailed purported plans for the forced transfer of Palestinians in Gaza to the Sinai peninsula.
The occupying regime is also reportedly offering a slew of proposals to entice Egypt to open its doors, including writing off a significant chunk of Egypt’s international debts through the World Bank, according to the Israeli Ynet website.
Egypt is currently mired in a debt crisis, ranking second only to Ukraine among countries most likely to default in debt payments. The cash-strapped country is haemorrhaging half its revenue in interest payments and is reliant on loans from the IMF and wealthy Persian Gulf states, limiting its ability to contradict U.S. foreign policy.
However, it remains unclear whether the occupying regime wields adequate influence at the World Bank to write off Egypt’s international debts.
Debt forgiveness has previously been leveraged by the United States to bring Egypt in line with its foreign policy. In 1991, the U.S. and its allies forgave half of Egypt’s debt in exchange for its involvement in the anti-Iraq coalition during the second Persian Gulf War.