Egypt refuses to encourage the Arabs to normalize relations with Israel
Egypt-Israel, Politics, 4/22/2005

The Egyptian foreign minister Ahmad Abu al-Gheit said on Thursday that his country refuses to carry out a role to encouraging the Arab states to encourage relations with Israel in case the latter asked for that, stressing that Cairo is attached to the Arab Peace Initiative.

Abu al-Ghait considered following his meeting with his Indonesian counterpart Hassan Werayuda in Jakarta, where he is attending the Afro-Asian summit, that the ball is in the Israeli court.

Abu al-Ghait said "we told them ( the Israelis ) that we have an Arab peace initiative that states trading land for peace." He added "If Israel withdraws from the occupied lands and a Palestinian state is established, the Arab states are ready to establish natural relations with Israel."

Abu al-Ghait indicated that "when the Israeli foreign minister came to Cairo last week, he proposed a new roadmap to establish relations between the Arabs and the world," our answer was that the "Arab initiative which was adopted in Beirut's 2002 summit is still valid and called for trading land for peace and each and every Arab country will take its own decision, according to the Arab initiative."

On the other hand, Abu al-Ghait described the Israeli unilateral withdrawal from Gaza to be the "first step towards the establishment of the Palestinian state."

Previous Stories:
  Rice: settlement activity ought to stop; Abul-Gheit: Olmert statements not positive   (4/8/2005)
  Abul -Gheit criticizes Israel's decoration of 'terrorist' Egyptian Jews   (4/4/2005)
  Pope Shenouda: We reject selling church land to Israelis   (3/25/2005)

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