CAIRO: Egypt said Tuesday that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi did not speak by phone with Donald Trump at the weekend, after the US leader called for relocating Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt and Jordan.
“A senior official source denied what some media outlets reported about a phone call between the Egyptian and American presidents,” Egypt’s state information service said, adding that any such contact would have been announced.
Trump had on Saturday touted a plan to “clean out” the Gaza Strip, saying he would “like Egypt to take people”, as well as Jordan.
The president had said he would speak to Sisi on Sunday, but no phone call has been announced by either leader’s office.
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On Monday, Trump reportedly said the pair had spoken, saying of Sisi: “I wish he would take some.”
The Egyptian foreign ministry on Sunday released a statement rejecting “any infringement on Palestinians’ inalienable rights to their land”, whether “temporarily or long-term”.
Egypt is a key US ally in the region, and was the only country besides Israel to receive an exemption from Trump’s foreign aid freeze this week.
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