Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Photo: www.egyptsaidso.com.

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak believes Egypt “will lose” the Sinai Peninsula to Jews who are striving to conquer it, he told Egyptian daily Al-Masri Al-Youm in an interview published Thursday and translated by the The Middle East Media Research Institute.

Speaking to the news outlet from his hospital bed, the former leader said that in the past, the Muslim Brotherhood sought to take over the eastern bank of the Suez Canal as a pathway to bring foreign companies there on foreign passports.

“But they actually were Jews, who are continuing to spread out, building facilities and places until they reach [the Sinai city] Al-Arish,” he claimed.

“In such a scenario, we will lose the Sinai because of the Israeli companies that occupy it. Likewise, they might also be entering it on U.S. passport[s] except they are Israeli citizens,” he said. “If they want to invest in the sea, why don’t they go to Al-Ain Al-Sukhna [a tourist and industrial town on the Gulf of Suez], for instance, and revive its port? What they mean [by going to] the [eastern] bank of the Suez Canal means that they want the Sinai, if truth be told.”

Mubarak also said he does not trust the American government because of its insistence on Egypt including the Muslim Brotherhood in its political process, explaining that he strongly rejected such inclusion during his own presidency.