Egypt’s Islamist-dominated parliament on Monday called for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador from Cairo and the recall of Egypt’s envoy to the Jewish state.
According to a report in AFP, which cited the Egyptian MENA news agency, the parliament unanimously approved a text prepared by the Arab affairs committee of the People’s Assembly calling for “the expulsion from Egypt of the Israeli ambassador and the recall of Egypt’s envoy from Tel Aviv.”
According to the text approved on Monday, MPs also called for a halt to gas exports to Israel.
“Egypt will never be the friend, partner or ally of the Zionist entity which we consider as the first enemy of Egypt and the Arab nation,” read the text.
It also called on the Egyptian government “to revise all its relations and agreements with that enemy.”
Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty in 1979, but there have been concerns that Egypt’s new parliament, which is dominated by the extreme Muslim Brotherhood and Salafi parties, may cancel the agreement.
The Muslim Brotherhood recently threatened to cancel the peace treaty with Israel by putting the issue up for a referendum and letting Egyptians decide. Presidential candidate Moussa Amr, however, recently rejected the possibility that the treaty would be cancelled.
Late last month, Israel’s new ambassador to Egypt, Yaakov Amitai, presented his credentials to military leader Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who has been in power since the revolution which resulted in former President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster.