Mubarak's efforts to salvage ME peace process
Egypt-Regional, Politics, 5/12/2001

Egyptian President Mubarak sent a message to US President George Bush dealing with the current situation in the Middle East.

Middle East News Agency (MENA) said in a report from Washington that the message focused on the developments of the situation in the region and the importance of halting deterioration and movement towards the peace process.

The message comes in the framework of efforts by President Mubarak for saving the peace process which is deteriorating because of the escalation of the Israeli attacks against Palestinians and in the framework of sustained follow up and consultations between Cairo and Washington.

Reporting from Washington, Al-Ahram said the US Administration has addressed an urgent appeal to the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships to end the sustaining violence, killing, destruction and attacks in the Palestinian territories.

A statement by the State Department urged the two leaderships to show courage and to end military escalation for the sake of securing the life and future of the Palestinian and Israeli children.

The United States also rejected settlement expansion and all settlement activities in general calling for their immediate freeze.

A state department official told Al-Ahram that the US administration has got assurances from the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that reports saying that Sharon was seeking to earmark equivalent of 360 million dollars to Jewish settlements are baseless.

The official said despite this denial, the US attitude towards settlement has not changed.

Meantime, Secretary of State Colin Powell has hailed the Egyptian-Jordanian initiative saying it is viable adding that all parties concerned were making contacts on it.

Powell told a Congress sub-committee that this initiative is still one of the options and could be touched on after the level of violence drops in Palestinian territories.

He indicated that Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Palestinians and the United States were discussing the initiative which was being ameliorated to become acceptable to all parties.

On the report the committee on fact finding in the Palestinian lands, better known as Mitchell report, Powell said this report could represent a basis for a new peace plan in the region.

He said he got the report which he described as extremely excellent, indicating that the US administration would attach a public letter to the report after it gets comments from the Israeli and Palestinian sides.

One member of the committee members addressed a question to Powell saying he felt that Sharon was not in a hurry to return to negotiations table, Powell said he believed that Sharon, Peres , Arafat, President Mubarak, King Abdullah and other leaders were willing peace.

He said after violence is controlled, negotiations could be resumed once more adding there was no military solution for the problem.

In New York, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan condemned the new escalation of violence among Israeli and Palestinian soldiers adding he was working with others to convince both parties to backtrack on the brink of the abyss and sit together to settle the problem.

Annan would later meet in Washington with President George Bush. Annan said he would inform Bush that what took place in the past two days was a dangerous escalation that could not be abandoned.

President Mubarak last week had had intensive contacts and talks on the latest developments in the Palestinian territories.

He met last Saturday with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat with whom he discussed essential elements of Mitchell report and the reasons behind the outbreak of violence in the Palestinian territories.

The President also discussed with the Jordanian Monarch reactions by various parties to the Egyptian-Jordanian initiative.

The President also met the Dutch and Canadian Foreign Ministers with whom he reviewed the volatile situation in the occupied lands and the risks involved in the Israeli escalation.

President Mubarak said in an interview with Kuwaiti Al-Seyassa newspaper that war was not the solution for the Palestinian problem adding Sharon's policy would involve Israelis into the circle of violence adding that the current stage necessitates more active US and European role as issues have become very complicated.

Previous Stories:
  Egypt rules out peace-saving summit in Sharm El-Sheikh   (5/9/2001)
  Mubarak rallies world support Egyptian-Jordanian initiative   (5/9/2001)
  Egypt asks for two permanent seats for Africa in UNSC   (5/9/2001)

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