CAIRO, Feb. 1 — Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and his Saudi counterpart Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud stressed the importance of regional de-escalation and rejected the use of force amid mounting regional tensions, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
The remarks came during a phone call between the two ministers on Saturday, where they underscored “prioritizing political and negotiated solutions, while rejecting the logic of escalation and the use of force,” the statement said.
The talks addressed developments related to the Gaza ceasefire, underscoring the critical importance of implementing the second phase of the U.S. peace plan for Gaza.
Discussions also focused on the situation in Gaza and the West Bank amid what was termed “daily repeated Israeli violations.”
The Israeli military campaign in Gaza has left more than 71,000 Palestinians dead and over 171,000 wounded since October 2023, according to Gaza’s health authorities.
An ongoing fragile ceasefire was reached two years later between Israel and Hamas through the mediation of Egypt, Qatar, Türkiye, and the United States.
The Egyptian and Saudi foreign ministers also discussed the situation in Sudan, where an ongoing conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has caused what the United Nations calls one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
The two ministers called for reaching “a humanitarian truce as a prelude to a comprehensive ceasefire and the launch of an inclusive political process.”
They also urged establishing safe humanitarian corridors and zones for civilians, particularly in light of the “massacres and grave atrocities” witnessed in the city of El-Fasher at the hands of armed militias. ( Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)
