Amr Moussa, a frontrunner in the Egyptian presidential race, criticized the peace agreement between Israel and Egypt on Monday and said that “the Camp David accords were dead and buried long ago.”

Moussa, who spoke during a meeting with voters in the Sohag region in southern Egypt, said, “The Camp David agreements do not exist anymore. They are an historic document whose place is on the shelf. The purpose of the agreement with Israel was to establish an independent Palestinian government, whereas today we are talking about an independent Palestinian state.” His remarks were quoted by the Yisrael Hayom newspaper.

He stressed, however, that “as long as Israel respects the peace treaty with Egypt we will do so as well, even though the primary document which governs the relationship between Israel and the Arabs is the Arab initiative of 2002.” These remarks echo similar ones he has made in the past.

Moussa served as foreign minister in the government of ousted President Hosni Mubarak. He then went on to serve as the head of the Arab League, a position which he gave up last year in order to run for the Egyptian presidency.

A poll released on Monday by the Egyptian Al-Ahram newspaper gave Moussa 41.1 percent of the votes in the poll. Presidential contender Abdel Moneim Abul-Fotouh, former Muslim Brotherhood leader, took 27.3 percent of the votes. Fotouh is receiving the backing of Salafists and Christians.

Ahmed Shafiq, a former prime minister in the Mubarak regime, came in third place in the poll and achieved 11.9 percent of votes.

Shafiq was disqualified from running last week, after the Islamist- dominated parliament passed a law barring former senior officials from the Mubarak regime from running for office. A day later, however, the election commission accepted his appeal and reinstated his candidacy. (IsraelNationalNews © 2012 05/01/12)