Egypt,US keen on pushing forward ME peace
Egypt-USA, Politics, 7/3/2000

Egypt's Foreign Minister Amr Moussa on Sunday met with US Ambassador in Cairo Daniel Kurtzer who kept him posted on the outcome of US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's recent visit to the region .

The meeting came within the framework of Egypt-US consultations on means of pushing forward the Middle East peace process.

"Albright was keen on briefing the Egyptian side on the latest developments in light of her talks with the parties concerned in the region," Kurtzer said. Albright presented, in her report to US President Bill Clinton, recommendations to be studied by him in order to examine what should be done during the coming stage to activate the Middle East peace drive. On the projected Egypt-US contacts during the coming period, Kurtzer said delegations representing trade, investment, small industries and education are expected to visit Egypt. "Preparations are currently underway to arrange for a new round of the US-Egyptian strategic dialogue," Kurtzer said, adding that he would visit the state during July or early in August, an Egyptian statement reported.

"If Israel wants to drop UN Security Council resolution 242, then the only alternative will be to apply UNSC resolution 181," said Foreign Minister Amr Moussa.

"Resolution 181 was issued in 1947 on the partition of Palestine," he added.

This came in press comments on recent Israeli statements. Some Israeli circles had claimed that resolution 242 did not apply to the Palestinian track.

"If we return to Camp David agreements, we will find that there was an Israeli commitment to deal with any peace process on the basis of resolutions 242 and 338," Moussa said.

Moussa Sunday recommended that the Egyptian-Sudanese ministerial committee be held in August, terming as a promising step the Sudanese government's decision to return Egypt's properties.

"Ousting Hassan A1 Turabi, former leader of the ruling National Congress Party, from his post satisfies all Sudan's neighbors but remains an internal affair, in which Egypt does not want to interfere," Moussa told the Sudanese "A1 Sahafi" newspaper, while visiting the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.

Speaking about the Egyptian-Libyan initiative, Mousse believed that the proposal should not be judged in terms of speed but rather in line with how to reconcile the stance of the Sudanese government to that of the oppositions.

"Though the Egyptian-Libyan initiative is much better than the IGAD's , there are efforts being exerted to coordinate between them in a bid to reach a solution to the Sudanese problem," said Moussa.

He did not attach great importance to the Oslo meeting's failure to reconcile the two initiatives.

Egypt's top diplomat also said he believed that IGAD was beginning to realize that Sudan's integrity was a priority to reach peaceful settlement to the whole dispute in the horn of Africa.

"Still there is a chance to coordinate between the two initiatives," Moussa believed.

Moussa Sunday said that relations between Egypt and Iran were making progress and that he had discussed pushing forward those ties with his Iranian counterpart Kamel Kharrazi.

The two officials had met on the sidelines of a recent ministerial conference of the Organization of Islamic Conference.

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