Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, received the King of Jordan and the Palestinian President in the northern Egyptian city of El Alamein yesterday, the Egyptian presidency announced.

First, Sisi met separately with Jordan’s King Abdullah II before leading a tripartite meeting with Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, the Egyptian presidency said in two separate press releases.

The three leaders addressed “the progress of the Palestinian issue”, called for an end to the “Israeli occupation” and reiterated their support for a “two-state solution” with East Jerusalem as the capital of a “sovereign and independent Palestinian state”.

Although the Egyptian presidency made no mention of normalization, a Palestinian source familiar with the matter told AFP that the summit aims to discuss US efforts to achieve normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel and Palestinian Authority claims in the context of signing such an agreement.

Egypt and Jordan, the first Arab countries to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979 and 1994 respectively, are Riyadh’s major regional allies.

Saudi Arabia does not recognize Israel and did not join the 2020 Abraham Accords, negotiated by Washington, which allowed the Israeli state to normalize its relations mainly with the kingdom’s two neighbors, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

Also read: Egypt – Syria | Syrian Foreign Minister visits Cairo after 12 years