Clinton request to Egypt’s Morsi: Improve ties with Israel

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi to improve ties with Israel.

Clinton made the request during a meeting Monday with Morsi in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

Morsi reportedly told Clinton that Egypt intends to uphold the 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, despite recent calls by the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood-led Egyptian government to renegotiate or completely abrogate the treaty.

Clinton reportedly also reassured Morsi that the United States would continue, and expand, economic assistance to Egypt.

The leaders reportedly also spoke about improving security in the Sinai Peninsula, which is located on Israel's southern border. Egypt has moved military troops and military hardware into the Sinai to combat terrorism, in violation of the peace treaty with Israel.

In an interview published Sunday in The New York Times, Morsi said that if Washington is asking Egypt to honor the peace treaty with Israel, then Washington should live up to its Camp David commitment to bring self-rule to the Palestinians in the form of their own state.

“As long as peace and justice are not fulfilled for the Palestinians, then the treaty remains unfulfilled,” he told the newspaper.