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In too many countries in the Middle East, some rulers say to their people ‘be angry about [the Israeli-Palestinian conflict], don‘t be angry about the fact that you live in a non-open society.

We believe that the biggest guarantee of peace is having democracy in our neighbours. We are happy to witness this democratic revolution which is taking place in the Arab world. Now is precisely the time to resume the talks between us and the Palestinians. I say to our Palestinian neighbours: ‘Let‘s return immediately to the negotiating table‘. This storm is also an opportunity for peace.

Democracy is a process not just an event. We who want to see a more stable world, and stronger trading relationships, we should be arguing for the building blocks of democracy. We‘ve got a very important trading relationship that we want to expand and we‘ve got a very important security relationship, not least in terms of combating extremist terror, that we need to sharpen. A process of political and economic reform doesn‘t run counter to those other two objectives. It goes with those objectives.

We can see what an unstable region we live in, an area in which Iran is trying to take advantage of the situation that has arisen and broaden its influence by transferring two warships via the Suez Canal. Israel takes a grave view of this Iranian step.

Support for this anti-Israel statement is a major concession to enemies of the Jewish State and other free democracies. It telegraphs that the US can be bullied into abandoning critical democratic allies and core US principles.

I have no doubt that maintaining the peace, deepening it, is in the interest of Egypt, and I hope this will accompany the Egyptian effort to achieve a free and democratic society as they pursue their reform.