Egyt: Jenin was a war crime; Peres heads to Cairo
Egypt-Israel, Politics, 8/5/2002

Egypt's President Mubarak will receive Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres on Tuesday for discussing efforts that must be exerted by the government of Israel for achieving peace and security in the region and halting Israeli aggressive policies in the West Bank.

This meeting comes in the context of a large scale Egyptian effort for saving the Palestinian people.

Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said Egypt would suggest to Peres the steps that should be taken by Israel for achieving peace and security for the Palestinian and Israeli peoples and reaching a political settlement.

Asked whether the Peres talks with Mubarak would help ease the current situation in the region and resume peace negotiations, Maher said what is required is not to calm down tension in the region but to end Israeli aggression against the Palestinians and get Israeli forces out of the Palestinian areas they occupied.

"This is the Egyptian stance that we will never change," Maher confirmed.

He added Egypt would continue contacts with Israel, as it believes that this could serve the Palestinian cause, adding that the Peres visit to Egypt comes in this regard.

On the Peres statements in which he said he hoped to see Arafat dead, Maher said "I read that in a French newspaper but I hope it is untrue".

Maher ruled out the possibility that any official in Israel or in any other place would make such statements.

On reports that the US intends to cut down the number of its forces participating in the multinational force in Sinai, Maher said Washington is thinking of cutting back on the number of its troops in the international force working in Sinai. But Egypt believes that such a step is unjustifiable.

Maher said the US stressed that this step had no political implication and that it was just a measure related to restructuring the American armed forces working abroad and had nothing to do with its commitment to backing the Egyptian-Israeli peace.

On reports that Peres would ask Egypt to help end the Palestinian suicide operations, Maher said the main problem is the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian lands and the Israeli practices against the defenseless Palestinians.

"All these create an atmosphere of frustration that leads to operations that we do not approve of when they target civilians."

The entire world knows that Israel is blocking the door of political settlement," Maher said.

On Israeli allegations that the raid air on Gaza City was the results of intelligence failings, he said sometimes they say that their intelligence service knows everything and another time they say their intelligence information are faulty.

But whatever the reason, what has happened is a crime that has already taken place and civilians have been killed.

So regardless of the circumstances, an operation has taken place that we fully condemn, he added.

On the UN report on the Jenin massacre, Maher said the report was compiled though Israel did not allow the concerned international committee to go there to know exactly what had taken place.

Though the report came incomplete because of the obstacles created by Israel to block the commission's work, the report contained points that fully condemned Israel, he added. "These points we should concentrate on because at the end they prove what we said before that it was a war crime and a crime against humanity," Maher said.

Asked whether there were Egyptian contacts with Sudanese parties in the South, especially with the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) leader John Garang, Maher said "we are in contact with all Sudanese sides and we have already made our stance clear before".

On Iraq's call on the head of the UN arms inspection committee to come and visit Iraq, Maher said UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said he would look into the issue in light of UN resolutions.

But anyway this is a positive step that opens the door for allowing the arms inspectors to return to Baghdad, he added.

Previous Stories:
  US to reduce monitor force in Sinai, as some still talk of war   (8/3/2002)
  Maher: What happened in Gaza was a massacre and a war crime against humanity   (7/27/2002)
  BBC: Egypt accuses Israel of timing it raids with Mubarak's visit to France   (7/25/2002)

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