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Dutch foreign minister Maxime Verhagen and his Danish colleague, Per Stig Møller, made the proposal during the recent escalation of conflict there. The Egyptian government now blames the Netherlands for doing Israel’s dirty work.
Reacting to questions from NRC International, Egyptian deputy foreign minister Hossam Zaki said the proposal was “inappropriate” and “badly prepared”. Zaki said Cairo had been unpleasantly surprised by Verhagen’s initiative. Even though the proposal directly concerned Egypt, it was reportedly never consulted. “Our EU embassies told us the Dutch and the Danish were working on something, but we were surprised to find that our position was not reflected in their proposal.”
