Israel cannot impose anything on Arabs
Egypt, Politics, 5/9/2000

"Israel has no power to impose a de facto or a position from its side due to the surrounding international situation," said Foreign Minister Amr Moussa.

In an interview with the Egyptian TV weekly "Chief Editor" program, Moussa said this policy is absolutely unacceptable and cannot be accepted by all the major forces in the world.

"A peace with Egypt and Israel was not impossible if the latter did not withdraw from all the Egyptian territories to the last meter of land," said Moussa.

"This certainly applies to Syria," added Moussa, stressing that there is no reason for any Arab country to relinquish a small or large piece of land to Israel.

"Security arrangements should be taken on both sides," Moussa further said, emphasizing that the Israeli attempt to achieve a "dishonorable" peace is certainly impossible.

"The more the final stage of negotiations and subsequent peace approach, the more obstacles pop up," expounded Moussa, noting that the Israeli proposals raised during the latest Eilat talks are completely unacceptable to the Palestinians.

"Palestinians cannot accept a deficient solution or sovereignty after all this long history of struggle, sacrifice and negotiations," he said.

"Egypt is supporting a full Israeli withdrawal from all the Lebanese territories in accordance with UN resolution 425," said Moussa, requiring that such pullout should take place on land, sea and air.

"Circumstances on the Israeli-Lebanese front changed with the continuing success of the resistance," he added.

"When Israel realized that its occupation of Lebanon is expensive, it initiated pullback. The aggression against Lebanon can be repeated, as the Israeli objective is to show off power and intimidate the Lebanese and Arabs," he said.

"Israel has surely failed in this intimidation and strikes against the civilian utilities in Lebanon failed to stifle the voice of resistance. The Arab countries and peoples are not afraid of Israel regardless of the military or nuclear might it has been granted," said the Egyptian top diplomat.

"All the Arab countries have no desire to be involved in the multilateral negotiations due to the breakdown in and the suspension of the peace negotiations or the Israeli unrealistic offers," said Moussa.

"All the decisions churned out in Moscow multilateral talks were frozen and the first Arab country that froze it indefinitely was Oman which championed the call for a meeting of the Multilateral Committee on Water," recalled Moussa.

The Arab public opinion does not believe in the credibility of the ongoing happenings due to the reported Israeli exaggeration of demands and arrogance on the various tracks," said the Foreign Minister.

"Normalization is far short of the Israeli hopes and the multilateral talks froze because of the Israeli unbalanced offers. We are observing closely the Lebanese track," he added.

"All Arabs have the ambition for an Arab summit that would look into inter-Arab cooperation and interests," said Moussa, adding that his ambition echoes all through the Arab world whenever two Arab leaders meet and that any such meeting often serves in setting the ground for the summit.

Shifting to the issue of EgyptAir plane, which crashed off the US coasts on October 31, 1999, Moussa said, "we are waiting for the result of investigations."

"It is not yet known when these investigations will end although they should not continue ad infinitum," added Moussa. He ruled out reports purporting that Egypt and the US have struck a deal to kill the issue, emphasizing that Egypt never accepts such logic. "There are victims and such a disaster cannot be covered by a deal", argued Moussa.

Previous Stories:
  Egyptian - Syrian summit   (5/8/2000)
  Time ripe for Arab summit   (5/8/2000)
  Egypt urges Israel to join NPT   (5/8/2000)

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