(Haaretz).Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday for the first time since taking office.
Following the meeting, Netanyahu told reporters that Israel plans to renew the peace negotiations with the Palestinians very soon.
"We want, as soon as possible, to resume the peace talks with the Palestinians and I hope they will indeed resume in the coming weeks," Netanyahu stressed.
Netanyahu's meeting with Mubarak is seen as an obligatory diplomatic warm-up act for his upcoming meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama to be held in a week.
During the press conference, the prime minister addressed the relations between Israel and Egypt, saying that the peace agreement between the two countries has held for over 30 years. "It withstood all the tests of time, and as far as we're concerned, and I know that for Egypt too, it is a strategic asset, a cornerstone of the stability and hope in the region."
Netanyahu added that Israel wants to expand this peace to include Israel's Palestinian neighbors, saying that Israel wants to see Israelis and Palestinians living together with an eye to "peace, security and prosperity."The prime minister thanked his Egyptian colleague for the efforts Egypt has invested in the battle against extremism and terror, which "threaten the entire region."
He added that the Jewish people want to maintain harmonious relations with the Muslim world, the Palestinians and with the Arab world as a whole. "We all live in this region and we are all the sons of Abraham," he said.
Netanyahu also said that moderate forces need to confront extremism in the Middle East. "Lately, we are regrettably witnessing extremist forces that are threatening the stability of the Middle East," Netanyahu said.
On Sunday, a senior government official involved in preparations for the meeting said that Mubarak was expected to tell Netanyahu that Israel must restart talks with the Palestinians.
"The fact that the prime minister has decided to go to Egypt first is because of the importance he attaches to Egypt and Arab countries who have peace treaties with Israel," an Israeli official told Reuters shortly before Netanyahu left Israel.
Mubarak said after his face-to-face meeting with Netanyahu that the Israeli PM "expressed his government's commitment to promoting peace, while I expressed Egypt's hope that his government live up to its commitment regarding the two-state solution and the advancement of the Arab peace initiative.
"During these talks some important issues were raised, including the settlements and the threat they pose to peace," the Egyptian president said, "We also spoke of the need for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state that will exist alongside Israel in peace and security," he said.
Mubarak said the two leaders also discussed "the need to strengthen the ceasefire in Gaza (between Israel and Hamas), to open the Gaza border crossings and rehabilitate the Strip."
