Sisi says he repeatedly told Netanyahu that Palestinian state would bring ‘lasting peace’

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on Thursday he has repeatedly told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that establishing a Palestinian state would bring peace and benefit everyone.

Speaking at the Police Academy’s 2026 graduation ceremony in New Cairo, Sisi said that in all his meetings and communications with Netanyahu since 2014, he had repeatedly emphasized that “the establishment of a Palestinian state would benefit everyone and lead to lasting peace and stability in the region.”

Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges related to Gaza, has repeatedly rejected the establishment of a Palestinian state as envisaged in relevant UN resolutions.

Israel was established in 1948 on Palestinian lands seized by armed Zionist groups, which carried out massacres and displaced at least 750,000 Palestinians. Israel subsequently occupied the remaining Palestinian territories in 1967 and has refused to withdraw from them.

Sisi stressed that “the stability of Sudan, Libya and the Gaza Strip is a requirement of Arab and Egyptian national security.”

He warned that the region is undergoing “major and profound geopolitical changes” that will have repercussions.

“Egypt and Saudi Arabia are the heart of the Arab and Islamic nations,” he said. “Any harm to either country will affect the other. Therefore, the assertion that the national security of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Arab Gulf states is interconnected is correct.”

This month, at least five Saudi airports and other sites have come under attacks by Yemen’s Houthi group, leading to casualties as well as causing material damage and disruptions to air traffic. The rebels, which took over Yemeni capital Sanaa have also targeted Saudi energy sites. Fighting resumed in July as a 2022 truce collapsed.

“Targeting the kingdom in this manner affects Arab and Egyptian national security,” the president said. “Egypt does not accept any infringement on the kingdom’s security or borders, and it also rejects any threat to the security of the Red Sea and international maritime routes.”

“What matters to us is the kingdom’s security, preserving it, maintaining its stability and reducing escalation,” he added.

Sisi also pointed to “risks on Egypt’s southern and western borders,” saying Cairo had sought and exerted every effort to prevent the conflict between the country's armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in Sudan that continues since 2023.