International News
Gaza PM Ismail Haniyeh in Egypt on historic visit
Posted on: Tue December 27, 2011
International Highlights
CAIRO: Gaza\'s Hamas premier was in Egypt Monday on his first trip outside the blockaded territory since the Islamists overran it in 2007, saying his meeting with his Islamic ideological mentors threatens Israel.
Ismail Haniyeh discussed Mideast politics with the leader of Egypt\'s Muslim Brotherhood, which has emerged as the biggest winner in the first parliamentary elections in post-uprising Egypt, capturing nearly half of the seats so far.
Hamas is considered an offshoot of the Brotherhood.
Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie met Haniyeh at the group\'s newly inaugurated headquarters in a Cairo suburb.
"The Brotherhood center has always embraced issues of liberation, foremost the Palestinian issue," Badie said, according to Egypt\'s state Middle East News Agency.
The Brotherhood renounced violence in the 1970s, but it supports Hamas in its resistance against Israel.
Haniyeh described Hamas as the "jihadi movement of the Brotherhood with a Palestinian face." He said his visit to the Brotherhood center would confuse and frighten Israel.
"Our presence with the Brotherhood threatens the Israeli entity," Haniyeh said according to MENA.
Israel has expressed concern that a new Egyptian government under Islamist influence might cancel Egypt\'s 1979 peace treaty with Israel.
Coyrtesy : Samaa News