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.
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