US aid to Egypt is not linked to peace process progress
Egypt-USA, Politics, 2/14/2002

US Secretary of State Colin Powell turned down a proposal to link the annual American economic and military assistance to Egypt and Israel to progress in the Middle East peace process.

In his address before the Senate's Budget Committee Tuesday night, he said that Egypt is exerting tremendous efforts to back American endeavours to stop violence between the Palestinians and Israelis and push the peace march forward.

Egypt is the strongest negotiator as far as dealing with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is concerned, he noted.

As for the Israelis, he said that reducing assistance to them is not the best strategy because they are being attacked by what he termed as "terrorist organizations" linked to the Palestinian Authority.

He said that the US administration revises the level of its assistance to both countries on a regular basis and that every time both of them come up with very strong reasons to justify the continuation of their allocations.

The US strategy in the Middle East lies in commitment to the establishment of two states, a Palestinian and an Israeli, living together side by side and implementation of Mitchell and Tenet understandings, he added.

"In recent days, I have been in touch once again with the closest aides to Mr. Arafat, talking about the specific things that need to be done, so that we can get the violence down and then see an Israeli response, because they now are confident of moving forward into the Mitchell plan," Powell said.

He said that the Mitchell plan talks about settlement activities stopping and opening closures and everything that is needed to get the negotiations started, which under appropriate U.N. resolutions, 242 and 338, can lead to a settlement of this crisis and to peace between the two sides.

But, until Mr. Arafat really is able to crackdown (to get violence under control), if he can, and I think he still can, I still think he has that authority-people want to push him aside as a leader.

But he is still the leader of the Palestinian people. They see him as such, and he is the elected leader of the Palestinian Authority.

And so I think he has to use his moral authority and his political authority to get the violence down, at which point we can get into a cease fire and move toward the Mitchell Plan.

Powell said he received a "positive" letter from Arafat on the Karine-Arms-laden ship two days ago. The letter is being examined, he added.

President George W. Bush will not rest until we get into a cease fire and get the negotiations started, he said.

Previous Stories:
  A high ranking Egyptian delegation to Washington   (2/13/2002)
  Mubarak receives phone call from Bush   (2/12/2002)
  Washington intends to reduce number of its troops in Sinai   (2/8/2002)

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