Mubarak and CIA Director discuss stability in ME
Egypt-USA, Politics, 6/7/2001

Within the framework of efforts exerted by Egypt and the parties concerned with the peace process for easing down tension between Palestinians and Israelis and containing disagreements, Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak yesterday received George Tenet, the Director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with whom he discussed ways of reaching security arrangements between the Palestinian and Israeli sides and implementing Mitchell Committee report recommendations.

President Mubarak had dispatched a message to US President George Bush, according to Egyptian ambassador in Washington Nabil Fahmy. The message came within the framework of contacts by President Mubarak with the regional and international parties on the latest developments in the region.

Fahmy said President Mubarak, in his message, called for intensifying the US role for tackling the current crisis between the Palestinians and Israelis.

The Egyptian ambassador expected that Washington would intensify efforts with regional powers for containing the current crisis and moving the situation according to the Mitchell Committee recommendations and the Egyptian Jordanian initiative.

Fahmy said in statements to Middle East News Agency (MENA) that Egypt was seeking to enable the Palestinian people of practicing their legitimate rights including their right to establish their independent states with Jerusalem as its capital in the framework of a comprehensive solution to the Arab Israeli conflict.

He added Egypt is conducting large-scale contacts for avoiding further deterioration of the situation in the West Bank and Gaza and is also seeking to implement recommendations of the fact-finding committee under former Senator George Mitchell, in implementation of the agreements signed by the two sides and moving towards negotiations on lingering issues.

At the European level, Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson, whose country presides over the current session of European Union, accompanied by Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy commissioner for a meeting with President Mubarak to review the current developments of the current situation in the Middle East.

A spokesman for Solana said the aim of prominent European officials meeting with President Mubarak is to get acquainted with the Egyptian standpoint towards the current crisis between Palestinians and Israelis and ways of moving ahead to avoid further deterioration.

Reports from Washington say that US moves come amidst indications of a genuine US desire to play a bigger role in settling Middle East crisis after a long period of anticipation.

President Bush described Tenet mission as extremely important. In statements to reporters on Tuesday, Bush said as soon as violence stops, the parties could return to negotiations. Bush renewed his country's support for implementing recommendations of the Mitchell Committee, which he described as good.

Meantime, a State Department spokesman said the CIA director would focus mainly on security issues through holding meetings with security officials and encouraging them to cooperate together.

He said the US envoy William Burns would act with both parties to reach unconditional halt of violence and to set confidence building timings and have negotiations resumed.

The spokesman said Burns and Sweden would take part in meetings with Palestinians and Israelis in the upcoming mission.

However, the spokesman did not disclose details of the double mission of the CIA director and the US special envoy.

Richard Boucher, the State Department spokesman said the United States sees it is important that the two sides would act genuinely to reach a ceasefire.

He added that the Tenet mission in the Middle East focuses on making an appraisal of the situation, and encouraging parties to make further security cooperation.

He said Tenet would submit a report to President Bush and his Secretary of State following the end of his mission.

The State Department spokesman considered Tenet's mission as complementary to the role played by William Burns, the assistant Secretary of State for the Near East and north Africa. Burns said the two roles complement each other and that the two men were working together.

On the other side, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres welcomed the changes taking place since Arafat announced ceasefire. "We could not ignore the changes taking place during the past few days," Peres said.

He criticized the campaigns Arafat was exposed to in Israel recently. He said if we describe Arafat as a terrorist, we should not be able to negotiate with him.

Previous Stories:
  US envoys sees Mitchell's report as indivisible package   (5/31/2001)
  Egyptian-American talks on probing Palestinian- Israeli situation   (5/30/2001)
  US should change attitudes towards ME   (5/24/2001)

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