Arab Ministerial committee to study Gaddafi's proposals; Annan in cairo
Egypt-Libya, Politics, 6/11/2001

Egyptian Foreign minister Ahmed Maher heads for Libya today on a two-day visit to take part in the meeting of the Arab ministerial committee assigned the task of studying the proposals made by Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi at the last Arab summit.

The meeting is also due to be attended by Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa. Egypt thinks that any ideas made by any Arab leader should be studied well by all other Arab states, Maher said, adding that Egypt welcomed any efforts aimed to help the Palestinians regain their legitimate rights.

The Ministers would meet with Gaddafi to listen to further clarifications of the ideas he presented at Amman summit, Maher added.

On the other hand, Maher said that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan would arrive in Cairo.

On what the UN could offer to the peace process, Maher said the UN was the body that had issued all the international resolutions as regards the peace process and so it should follow up their implementation.

Annan is assigned this job, Maher said, adding that the 2000 Sharm El-Sheikh summit brought back life to the European role as President Hosni Mubarak had invited EU Foreign and Security Representative Javier Solana to attend the summit.

So Egypt was the country that revived both the EU and UN role in the political life, Maher said.

Asked whether the Egyptian-Jordanian initiative was still on the table, Maher said the initiative has succeeded in stirring issues that have been previously dormant, then came the Mitchell Commission's recommendations which put a timetable for negotiations.

He stressed that both the initiative and Mitchell report had not contradicted with Madrid terms of reference and UN resolutions.

About the security contacts between the Palestinian and Israeli sides, Maher said work at the security level runs parallel to the political level in light of the US proposals.

Egypt has underlined the importance of not separating between the political and security work, Maher said.

Asked whether he saw that matters were proceeding for the better, Maher said it is still premature to say that. But all that can be said now is that intensive efforts are underway to move the situation for the better.

About whether Egypt would agree to host the Palestinian Israeli security meetings, Maher said when this suggestion is raised it will be discussed in time, stressing that Egypt would never hesitate to support any suggestion that could help make headway.

About Egypt's vision as regards the Egyptian-Iranian relations in light of the re-election of President Mohammad Khatami, Maher said Egypt wants to have good relations with Iran as it is an important country in the region.

But about promoting the Egyptian-Iranian relations, Maher said this issue is Iran's problem.

"We hear some voices in Iran calling for improving relations with Egypt then after that we hear something completely different," Maher said adding that when the Iranians reach a decision on such a matter, we will meet together to discuss what would happen on improving Arab-Iranian relations.

Previous Stories:
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