Abul Fotouh, top Egyptian presidential candidate, says Israel peace treaty should be ‘revised’
Egyptian former Muslim Brotherhood member and now presidential candidate Abdelmoneim Abul Fotouh gestures to the crowd on stage during an election campaign rally on April 2, 2012, in Cairo.
CAIRO, Egypt — A leading candidate for Egypt's forthcoming presidential election said the country's landmark 1979 peace treaty with Israel constituted a "national security threat" that "must be revised," reported Agence-France Press.
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Dr. Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh, who is campaigning as a centrist, called Israel a "racist state" in a Saturday interview with the private Egyptian satellite station CBC, according to AFP.
He also criticized the US-led raid that killed terror leader Osama bin Laden, reported the Tehran Times.
The latest poll puts Abul Fotouh behind rival Amr Moussa, a Mubarak-era foreign minister, and Ahmed Shafiq, his former prime minister, according to AhramOnline.
Abul Fotouh faced off with Moussa in Egypt's first-ever presidential debate last week. In response to a question about the role of Israel in Egypt's future foreign policy, Aboul Fotouh called the country an enemy. Moussa disagreed, but said the peace treaty should be revisited.
A former member of the Muslim Brotherhood, Abul Fotouh has since broken with the movement and is now campaigning as a moderate Islamist.
Egypt is set to hold elections May 23-24, a historic vote meant to install the country's first civilian president after former leader Hosni Mubarak was ousted by popular protest last year.