Mubarak: Exclusion of Arafat to be determined by the Palestinians
Egypt-Palestine, Politics, 5/9/2002

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak affirmed that the exclusion of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat is a matter to be determined by the Palestinian people, and Israeli Prime Minister Sharon is free to say whatever he likes on this isuue.

This came in a reply to a question following inauguration by the President of a number of projects in Sheikh Zayed City at Giza on how President sees the situation as to own vision of Sharon's plans of sidelining Arafat.

"If Sharon excludes Arafat, he is free to say whatever he likes, but I am telling him if you are serious about peace, you have to deal with the elected Authority until you have agreed and pursued in the peace process."

Replying a question on whether an Egyption and on Arab stand pointed towards the proposed peace conference has materialized, President Mubarak said, "We did not talk about this peace conference, and I have no idea of its principles or on what basis it will be held."

"We haven't received a copy of this subject .We held several conferences before but what matters is the implementation...There've been many large conferences and agreements, but none were implemented. Should they have been ,there will no need for any further conferences," President Mubarak said.

Meanwhile President Mubarak ruled out the news that has been circulated about the possibility of holding a mini Arab summit, "Nothing of that sort..the Saudi crown Prince will come and I will meet him. Somebody else may come," Mubarak said.

In a reply to another question on whether Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and King Abdallah of Jordan will be attending, President Mubarak did not rule out the attendance of the Syrian President.

"The Syrian President may attend and we welcome him, but King Abdallah is in the United States at present."

Meantime, President Mubarak confirmed that cooperation between Egypt and the United Arab Emirates is very close, and said "The UAE people are ever ready for any kind of assistance."

The model of Sheikh Zayed City, the stations and the units and the expenditures they have undertaken on them, is considered the best model of cooperation between us and the United Arab Emirates'.

On the volume of development in Upper Egypt, President Mubarak said 'The development is going on very well, but our problem is the terrific increase in population.

For instance, overnice 1981 the increase amounted to 30 million people, and the state is trying hard to provide services. If we go on in this rate of increase, a time will come when the state's financial potentialities will not be able to provide necessary services.

So we have to organize ourselves so as to be able to improve our standard, "Unless we maintain our standard of life, we will not be able to help the coming generations," the President concluded.

Previous Stories:
  Mubarak keen on closing ranks of Arab nation   (5/6/2002)
  UN Security Council required to follow up on Israel's war crimes, Baz   (5/6/2002)
  Al-Baz, Maher voice solidarity for the Palestinians   (5/6/2002)
  SC turned its back on Annan over fact-finding mission   (5/4/2002)
  Conflict overburdened Egypt   (4/25/2002)
  Maher contacts several Arab opposite numbers on hot issues   (4/20/2002)

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