Mubarak advice US against selective anti-terror alliance
Egypt-Regional, Politics, 9/18/2001

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak yesterday urged the United States to carefully consider its approach of forming an international anti-terror alliance, warning that current plans threatened to divide the world into two camps.

In an interview with United Press International (UPI), President Mubarak said the scale of the disastrous terrorist attacks on US targets was beyond imagination and comprehension, adding that it was very costly in terms of human loss.

The President also indicated that the whole world shared the grief because the victims of the attacks belonged to many world countries, not only the US.

President Mubarak said it was a wake-up call for the international community to take terrorism more seriously.

He stressed that intelligence services have produced scores of reports on the moves and plans of terrorist groups, but there hasn't been any clue suggesting that terrorists would hijack passenger planes and crash them into the mighty twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.

"The terrorists sought to hit where it hurts. They targeted the symbols of US economic and military might. The White House itself has barely escaped total destruction. It's like a scientific fiction nightmare," he said.

When asked about the impact of this terrorist attack on the whole world, the President said it alerted the international community to the need to take transnational terrorism more seriously through actions not words.

"But we must be very careful while going about such an enterprise. The current plans of the US administration to build an anti-terrorism alliance threatens to split the world as it will include some countries and seclude others," he warned.

He reiterated that it was wiser and more feasible to call for an international anti-terror conference (an idea which the President championed for so many years) under the umbrella of the United Nations to endorse a global agreement to fight terrorism. He said the agreement must be carefully designed and must be equally binding to all countries without allowing for exceptions.

Egypt hosted an anti-terrorism conference in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in 1997. Although the conference produced a strongly worded communique, its resolutions were not implemented.

The President said the conference was called for after Shimon Peres had lost the elections in Israel giving way to hawkish leader Benjamin Netanyahu to become a Prime Minister.

"Netanyahu had no intention to make peace and his successor Ehud Barak had great expectations but he didn't want to end up assassinated like Yitzhak Rabin.

"The conference resolutions were not implemented because many of the important countries in the world didn't attend, but this time I think they will all attend to prove that terrorists have no place to hide," he said.

He argued that the countries which violate the recommendations of this conference must be isolated and ostracized from the international community.

When asked about what he expected to come out of this conference, Mubarak said countries must not be allowed to shelter terrorists who committed operations in other countries.

"Terrorists are moving freely from one place to another because they enjoy the protection offered to them by some countries. They can communicate and network using the most advanced communication methods.

The director of the US National Security Agency recently said the bin Laden organization had beaten them in their own game," Mubarak said.

In response to a question about the possibility of forcing Afghanistan to surrender Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden, Mubarak said when the world countries agree not to give sanctuary to wanted terrorists, Taliban will have no other option but to surrender bin Laden to stand trial.

"If Afghanistan fails to surrender bin Laden it will risk its relations with the three countries that recognize the Taliban government and the supplies flooding to them from these countries will be cut," he said.

Mubarak also stressed that last week's assaults demonstrated utter dissatisfaction with the United States' foreign policy.

"The Middle East is central to this dissatisfaction. Muslims and Arabs around the world feel utterly disappointed at Washington's unconditional bias to the Jewish State.

'The US provides Israel with weapons to kill Palestinians and offers Tel Aviv unconditional moral and political support despite its atrocities," he said.

He said the people in the most moderate countries in the Middle East such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Jordan were very upset because of this injustice. "The leaders of these countries told me that the streets were boiling," he said.

He said the Palestinians and Israelis must start implementing the recommendations of the Mitchell report which was drafted by US sponsorship.

"The Israelis must withdraw their troops and tanks from Palestinian areas and stop their policy of blockading and continued violence. Desperation is the only thing that leads Palestinians to commit suicide bombings," he said.

Mubarak also urged the US to reconsider its policy in the region, arguing that diplomatic indifference towards the crisis led to the current deadlock.

Previous Stories:
  Maher stresses world's cohesion to fight terrorism   (9/15/2001)
  PA supports Mubarak's call to hold conference on terrorism-combat   (9/15/2001)
  Mubarak discussed with Annan holding international conference for terrorism combat   (9/15/2001)

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