Mohamed Morsi’s office denied Israeli media reports Tuesday evening of the Egyptian President having reached out to his Israeli counterpart Shimon Peres to express his wishes for peace.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry had published a brief letter, inaccurately addressed to ‘Perez’, on its website during the course of the day, purporting to be from the newly-elected Islamist leader.
The undated message offered “deep thanks” for Peres’ good wishes on the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and expressed hope for the “security and stability of all peoples of the region, including that Israeli people”.
The Israeli President’s office was apparently satisfied with the provenance of the letter, which appeared to have been issued from a known fax number of the Egyptian Embassy in Israel, and confirmed its receipt on Tuesday.
Peres had previously sent a letter of his own to the Egyptian leader, congratulating him on his historic election win, following the first democratic polls in the country since last year’s popular uprisings which overthrew long-time authoritarian ruler Hosni Mubarak.
However, later that day, Egyptian daily Al-Ahram quoted Morsi’s spokesman Yasser Ali as having denied the letter was genuine. “This report is completely false,” he reportedly claimed. “President Morsi did not send any correspondence to the Israeli President, and the reports to that effect in Israeli newspapers today are fabricated. These fabrications do not stop.”
Although Morsi’s apparent direct communication with the Israeli leadership would seem to contradict his somewhat neutral position so far, he has implied since his election last month that he would uphold Egypt’s 1979 peace accord with Israel and has not spoken out publicly against the Jewish State.
The Israeli foreign ministry notably left the correspondence up on its website even after Morsi’s spokesman declared it a fake, and the Egyptian foreign ministry refrained to comment on Israel’s apparent belief in its authenticity.
Israel no doubt believes the sentiments of the letter were a direct reply to Peres’ own message earlier this month, in which he said: “I know that both Egypt and Israel see with utmost importance peace and stability in our region as something that servers the interest of all peoples of the region”.
Despite both sides talking of peace to the media, there have been no acknowledged moves as yet to arrange a direct meeting between the two states. It was thought that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had used her visit to Egypt this month en route to a planned trip to Israel to try to convince the new leadership to meet with its Israeli counterparts.
However, at a press conference following her July 14 meeting with Morsi, Clinton denied she has exerted pressure on the Islamist President to meet with Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu, insisting: “It is up to the two nations, and the president and prime minister, to make their own scheduling plans.”
Morsi has met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas political chief Khaled Mashaal since rising to power, in an apparent effort to mediate between the two rival Palestinian factions. He has previously said “we stand at equal distance from all Palestinian factions. We support and aid them and are always happy to help in reconciliation.”
Morsi’s spokesman has previously denied Iranian news agency reports of an interview with Morsi in which he apparently called for closer ties with the controversial Iranian regime. Morsi’s office claimed the interview itself was a fabrication and that its contents were “without foundation”.

EJP