Mubarak in an interview with Lebanese magazine Al-Hawadith
Egypt, Politics, 10/25/2001

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said yesterday, in an interview with Lebanese Magazine "Al-Hawadith" that he hopes the war against Afghanistan would not last for along time.

Mubarak added that USA didn't ask for Egyptian troops to participate in the current US-led anti-terrorism war in Afghanistan. "We only provide USA with data on terrorism," he said.

When I advised the Americans on terrorism combat, some of them criticized me as placing conditions to cooperate with them.

"I hope this war will not drag on. The longer it goes, the greater the number of victims and people killed, the worsening of economic conditions worldwide," he said.

Mubarak reiterated Egypt's support for US military action aimed at Osama bin Laden, its top suspect in the September 11 suicide attacks, and said the West had come to recognize the danger of militant groups like those Egypt fought.

Mubarak also drew a line between terrorism and the legitimate rights of peoples living under foreign occupation to fight their occupiers.

Asked about his early proposal to convene an international anti-terrorism conference, the President said "Of course the Jewish lobby is afraid of this conference.The Jewish lobby tried to equate the Palestinian resistance terrorism. This is a wrong logic. Palestinians have the legitimate right of resistance to restore their lands." He called on the Jewish lobby in the west to stop "blind support" for Israel.

"This blind support damages many parties especially Israel. It increase" animosity against Israel," Mubarak said in the interview, also published by a host of other Lebanese publications.

He added that while Egypt supported the US anti-terrorism campaign and shared intelligence information with the US, Cairo was not ready to send troops to take part in the military action against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

"In Egypt, the head of State does not have the authority to send troops abroad. It needs approval from the People's Assembly. Egypt was not asked to participate in the campaign with troops," he said.

Mubarak said that uprooting international terrorism needed, a long period and massive world coordination.

"Therefore I've been calling for an international conference since 1986," he said.

Mubarak cast doubt on US investigators' preliminary account of the attacks on New York, which holds that pilots who briefly trained at flight schools in Florida and elsewhere crashed hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center.

"I cannot convince myself that people who spent a year and a half learning to fly in Florida could fly big commercial planes and precisely hit the World Trade Center, which looks like the size of a pencil to a pilot in the air," said Mubarak, a veteran pilot fighter." It would take a professional pilot to perform that task."

Mubarak also said that he did not expect the US military campaign would extend to Middle Eastern countries and urged the United States to dry up regional sources of terror by pushing for a just solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Mubarak, asked about US media claims that lack of democracy in Arab countries was behind the spread of religious extremism among Arab population, Mubarak said that freedom of expression was widespread in the Arab world.

"It is not as Israel claims that it is the only democracy in the region. In fact, Israel is the country that disrespect the international legitimacy and that does not abide by the court ruling. It is going with a policy of mass killing in contravention with human rights." he said.

"Terrorism knows no religion or a country. It has nothing to do with freedom of expression," he said.

Mubarak said that his call for more efforts to solve the Palestinian problem is in line with the anti-terror war and did not mean imposing any precondition on the US stance.

"I called on them (the Bush Administration) to move so that the public opinion in the region would see a hope in settling this chronic problem and feels justice and balance in the US stance.

"They attacked me in the US and said President Mubarak was making preconditions, but these are not preconditions but mere pieces of advice to the Americans, they can take it or leave it," he said.

Mubarak strongly dismissed rumours about sectarian strife in Egypt. Muslims and Copts, he said, have been living in the country in rare harmony and peace for centuries.

"Of course there are some foreign parties that seek to ignite sectarian strife but their attempts will fail," said Mubarak, reiterating his rejection to form any parties in Egypt that are based on religion.

Previous Stories:
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