By Xinhua
Cairo : Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said Monday his country will seek to control its border with the Gaza Strip gradually and restore the situation there to an acceptable condition.
Abul Gheit reiterated the stance in contacts with foreign officials on this matter, Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said in a statement.
Egypt is holding contacts with all sides concerned to activate a 2005 agreement that regulates the administration of crossings, including Rafah checkpoint, Zaki said.
Abul Gheit has made contacts via either telephone or verbal messages with a number of European foreign ministers, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, European Union (EU) External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero Waldner and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana regarding the handling of the crossing point.
The U.S.-brokered deal, which was reached in November 2005, allows the Rafah terminal to run with Palestinian Presidential Guard controlling the Palestinian side of the crossing while EU monitors acting as a third party.
Abul Gheit said Israel must cooperate to run the crossings, including the deployment of Palestinian National Authority security members in these borders and resuming the work of EU monitors.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been seeking Egyptian and Israeli help to take over Gaza’s border crossings, including the one at Rafah, which was blasted open on Wednesday to allow tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza to cross into Egypt for stocking up on food and fuel.
Israeli radio reported on Monday that the EU was considering redeploying its monitors on Rafah crossing between the Hamas-run Gaza and Egypt.
However, Hamas has said it rejects returning to the 2005 international agreement on running the Rafah crossing on the Egypt-Gaza border.