Egypt president rejects negotiation with Sinai kidnappers

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has rejected any negotiations with the kidnappers of seven members of security forces who were abducted in the Sinai Peninsula last week.

“There would be no dialogue with criminals,” Morsi said at a Sunday meeting with heads of several political parties to discuss efforts to release the abducted forces.

“We won’t be subjected to blackmailing,” He added.

Morsi, however, underscored the need for promoting comprehensive economic and social development in Sinai as a major solution to root out growing extremism across the peninsula.

On Thursday, a group of masked gunmen abducted seven recruits, three from the police and four from the military, in North Sinai’s Green Valley, some 20 kilometers away from el-Arish, the capital of the North Sinai Governorate.

Witnesses said the militants stopped two taxis at gunpoint outside el-Arish and then fled with the abductees.

The kidnappers say they will release their captives in exchange for freedom of political prisoners, including Hamada Abou Sheita who is sentenced to capital punishment over a raid on a police station in North Sinai in 2011.

This is the first time that Egyptian security forces have been abducted by suspected militants.

Governor of North Sinai Abdel Fatah Harhour said on Sunday that security efforts are underway to identify the kidnappers as no group has claimed responsibility for the incident.

Militant groups and criminals have exploited a security vacuum that has developed in the Sinai since the 2011 uprising against former dictator Hosni Mubarak.

In August 2012, at least 15 Egyptian policemen were killed in an assault on a police station at the border between Egypt and Israel. It was the deadliest incident in Egypt’s Sinai in decades.

In response, Cairo launched an offensive against terrorists in Sinai, sending thousands of troops backed by tanks and heavy equipment into the region.