Egypt's presidential spokesman said on Monday that the translation of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's interview with the Associated Press that is being circulated in the Arab media is "inaccurate."
Sisi was cited by the Associated Press as saying that the peace between Egypt and Israel should include other Arab states.
According to state news agency MENA, spokesman Alaa Youssef told reporters in response to their questions that the president spoke about a comprehensive peace and its positive effect on all people in the region and on ties between Arab states and Israel.
Youssef said Sisi stressed that "this cannot be achieved without solving the Palestinian issue and declaring a Palestinian state on the borders of June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as it capital."
The spokesman added that establishing a Palestinian state and a comprehensive peace in the region can create a new reality that allows for the peace between Egypt and Israel to expand and include other Arab countries.
Youssef's comments come after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed on Sunday Sisi’s call “to expand peace with Israel,” his spokesman said.
The interview, which was conducted in New York where Sisi is heading Egypt's delegation to the 70th UN General Assembly meeting, was published on Sept. 26.
Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1979 after months of negotiations, ending a state of war and normalising ties.
Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace agreement with the Jewish state, but tensions the two countries still exist.
In September 2011, Egyptian protesters marched onto the Israeli Embassy in Cairo's twin city Giza, with some storming the building which housed the embassy. The embassy staff had to be evacuated.
Nearly a year later, the administration of then-president Mohamed Mursi who hailed from the Muslim Brotherhood, recalled its ambassador to Israel in November 2012.
The move was in objection to deadly Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip, to which armed groups in Gaza responded by firing rockets into Israel.
Israel has imposed a land, sea and air blockade on the Gaza Strip since 2007 to the present.
Egypt has kept its border with Gaza mostly sealed, recently conducting a large-scale operation to destroy the smuggling tunnels connecting the two.
