BICOM

Egyptian presidential hopefuls Amr Moussa and Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh said in a televised debate yesterday that Israel is an adversary and enemy, and pledged to review the Egypt-Israel peace treaty.

The two election front-runners, a former Foreign Minister and Arab League Secretary General and a moderate Islamist, squared off in a presidential debate, watched by millions across the Arab world. The two sought to catch each other out on questions ranging from their perspective on Islamic sharia law to their views on Israel during the four hour debate, which was broadcasted on two privately owned television channels.

Both candidates said they would review Egypt’s 1979 peace treaty with Israel, a country Abol Fotouh described as an enemy and Moussa called an adversary.

“Israel is an enemy, built on occupation. It owns 200 nuclear warheads and doesn’t respect international decisions … the agreement with Israel should be revised, and that which is against Egypt’s interests should be removed immediately and what is in our interest should stay,” Aboul Fotouh said.

Moussa responded by saying the treaty should be slightly revised, but stopped short of calling Israel an enemy. “We have lots of disagreements. Most of our people consider it an enemy, but the responsibility of the president is to deal with such things responsibly and not run after hot-headed slogans,” he said. Last month, Moussa told an election rally in southern Egypt that the Camp David agreement was “dead and buried.”

The two are among 13 candidates competing in the election, due to begin on 23 May.

Other contenders include Mohamed Mursi, the Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate, Ahmed Shafiq, Mubarak’s last prime minister, and Hamdeen Sabahy, a leftist.