Maher: Israel knows fact-finding mission will condemn its crimes in Jenin
Egypt-Palestine, Politics, 4/29/2002

Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher underlined Saturday that Israel's position as regards any investigation into Jenin massacres would be very weak.

In statements to the press Saturday, Maher said the Israelis try to cover up their crimes in Jenin by obstructing the UN team's mission. He said that Israel's refusal to go back to the negotiating table indicated that it realized that a return to negotiations would mean its abidance by international legitimacy.

He added that this stance also applied to the issue of the fact-finding commission. Maher referred in this respect to Israeli officials' call for not putting on trial any Israeli figure found guilty in accordance with the commission's report. This means that they know that there are persons who deserve to stand trial for the crimes they had committed, he added.

Giving his assessment of the outcome of talks held between US President George Bush and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, he said we call for a fair and strong American role.

He added that he believed that Prince Abdullah's Washington visit must have made it clear to the Americans that the Arabs wanted just and overall peace.

Maher underlined that Egyptian-Saudi contacts would be held to learn of the outcome of Prince Abdullah's talks in Washington.

Asked to comment on the eight points presented by the Saudi Crown prince during his talks with Bush, he said that he has not been posted on or officially informed of any points.

But what he read in newspapers was in line with the Arab stance that called for halting violence, freezing settlement building, ending the occupation and putting into force the agreed references for negotiations, he added.

Asked about the prospective four-way meeting expected to be held in Washington by the US, Russia, the European Union and the UN, Maher said the meeting was called following a similar fourman gathering held in Madrid, noting that he believed the parties would be meeting again to take the proper measures to translate into action the good stance they adopted at the first meeting.

On Egypt's attitude towards a proposal to hold an international conference to discuss a Middle East settlement, Maher voiced Egypt's belief that what were required were not new terms of reference or fresh meetings, but rather the implementation of what had already been agreed.

On the commando operation that took place near Hebron early Saturday, Maher made it clear that Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon's method of withdrawing and re-occupying Palestinian cities to pursue "wanted" Palestinians would not end the resistance.

"As long as there is occupation, there will be resistance, and this confirms the failure of Sharon's policy and shows that all the Palestinian people are resisting...and Sharon cannot wipe out the whole Palestinian people," Maher added.

Asked whether there was any hope for the peace process with Sharon in power in Israel, Maher said "we do not have any problem with individuals, but rather with policies...and these policies could be changed either willingly and unlikely occurrence-or through large-scale international pressures, and this is what we are trying to build day after day."

Previous Stories:
  Grand Imam of Al-Azhar urges backing to Palestinians   (4/27/2002)
  Pope Shenouda condemns lax western stance on attacks on Nativity Church   (4/27/2002)
  Egypt set to work for liberating occupied lands   (4/27/2002)
  Al- Assad: peace requires investigations of Israeli crimes, and implementian of UN resolutions   (4/24/2002)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search