CAIRO, Nov 23 (Aswat Masriya) – The statements Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi made in regards to the possibility of sending troops to secure a future Palestinian state were said to encourage Israel to move toward the two-state solution, the presidential spokesman said.

Sisi was quoted earlier on Sunday by Italian daily Corriere della Sera as saying: "We are prepared to send military forces inside a Palestinian state. They would help the local police and reassure Israelis in their role as guarantors."

Presidential Spokesman Alaa Youssef issued a statement shortly afterwards to "clarify" the president's comments.

"Sisi's talk on the readiness of Egypt and other Arab countries to contribute to guaranteeing the appropriate circumstances for the establishment of a Palestinian state was in the context of providing ideas to encourage the Israeli side to move toward resolving the Palestinian cause through [adopting] the two state solution," Youssef said.

He added that the suggestion was also made to "overcome any obstacles which stand in the way of the formation of a Palestinian state."

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri and United States Secretary of State John Kerry stressed the importance of resuming the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, during a meeting in the British capital, London last week.

Kerry launched an attempt to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in July 2013, coordinating direct negotiations between both sides. Negotiations collapsed upon reaching a pre-planned deadline in April with little results.

Egypt announced on August 26 reaching a ceasefire agreement within the Palestinian Gaza strip, ending a 50-day war between Israel and Gaza's ruling body Hamas that has left 2139 Palestinians killed and over 11,100 injured. On the Israeli side sixty-four soldiers and six civilians were killed.

Indirect negotiations between Israel and Palestinian factions, sponsored by Cairo, were scheduled to resume within a month after the start of the new Gaza ceasefire, as per the agreement.

On October 26, Egypt notified Hamas that it postponed the second round of negotiations, two days after a deadly militant attack in the Sinai Peninsula which left at least 30 security personnel killed.