Mubarak in the last part of Word for History: Muslim, Christians and Jews in Egypt are equal
Egypt, Politics, 4/27/2005

Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak said he will not make a decision on running for the coming presidential elections until debates on the amendment of article no 76 of the Egyptian Constitution are completed.

In the third episode of the interview with media man Emad Eddin Adib, President Mubarak said a law on this score should be put into force first and then he would have an overall assessment of the situation and take a decision.

President Mubarak stressed that a decision in this regard had not yet been made. He added he did not like to make a hasty decision and all aspects of the situation should be thoroughly studied.

In case, said President Mubarak, he decided to run for the elections, he would first present to the Egyptian people a statement of his achievements since he took over in 1981 and until now.

Regarding reports that there were foreign pressures or interference for introducing political amendments in Egypt, the President responded in the negative.

He denied that there were any direct or indirect US demand on this score, Mubarak confirmed that his announcements on amending article 76 of the Egyptian Constitution were the start of political reforms in Egypt that would be followed by many other steps of reform.

Answering a question on whether he would feel upset if he got only 60 or 65 percent of the vote in the coming presidential election, the president said he would not.

As for reports on setting up political parties on a religious basis, the President said the law does not allow forming such parties. However, added the President, the law does not ban any person regardless of his ideological or religious inclinations to join any political party.

President Mubarak made it clear that no Egyptians suffered hostility for their creeds. All Egyptian Muslims, Copts and Jews are treated on equal footing.

Responding to a question on a visit by late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to Jerusalem and his speech before the Israeli Knesset, President Mubarak said that President Sadat made the visit in November 1977 but he had been thinking of a peace initiative with Israel since March of the same year.

The Egyptian President noted that Egypt started peace talks with the Israelis with a view to restoring its usurped rights through peaceful means to spare its people the scourge of wars.

President Sadat, said Mubarak, was keen that the Israelis should withdraw from all occupied Arab lands not only the Egyptian territories.

This is why he presented two working papers at the Camp David peace talks, one of them was about means of settling the Palestinian question, said President Mubarak.

Responding to a question on the difficult time when he assumed power after the assassination of President Sadat, with an avalanche of economic problems gripping Egypt and soured relations between Egypt and other Arab countries along with worries about Israel's dodging its commitments that would hinder Egypt's regaining territories occupied by Israel, President Mubarak said that since he assumed power he showed relentless keenness on preserving Egypt's sovereignty over all its territories.

President Mubarak added that with the approach of the day of Israel's withdrawal from Sinai, the Israelis fabricated the problem of Taba as part of delay tactics to put off their withdrawal from Sinai.

This is why, said the President, we resorted to international arbitration to settle our differences with the Israelis.

ÊÊÊ President Mubarak asserted that since he assumed power he had been championing the slogan that not an iota of Egyptian soil would be relinquished.

In his interview with media man Emad Eddin Adib, President Mubarak noted that when he assumed power in 1981 he was looking for a way out of problems hemming in Egypt at the time.

President Mubarak said that he picked Dr. Fouad Mohie Eddin as Prime Minister and had consultations with him on how to address Egypt's economic woes.

We reached an agreement, said Mubarak, on holding a conference to study Egypt's economic problems and since that time the government has been adopting five-year plans.

Public services were very bad, with no hard currency reserves and everything in shambles.

President Mubarak said that Egypt's relations with other Arab countries were severed (due to differences in political views with President Sadat), something that took much time and effort to put Egypt's relations with the Arab countries back on track.

The Egyptian President stressed the fact that reform did not start in Egypt one, two or three years ago. Rather, it started since the days of late President Sadat.

Pluralism, press freedom and the reformation of political parties have all started since the days of Sadat, explained president Mubarak.

Drawn to answer a question on his attitude on Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, President Mubarak said that he was against the invasion of Kuwait.

He went on to say that Egypt believed that it should take part in liberating Kuwait from the Iraqi invasion. Albeit, the President said, Egypt had an adamant stance that Egyptian forces should not enter Iraqi lands.

Thanks to Egypt's stance during the war for liberating Kuwait, almost half or its foreign debts was waved, said the Egyptian President.

The President explained that had Egypt taken Iraq's side during its invasion of Kuwait, it would have been a catastrophe for the Egyptian economy. More, said Mubarak, Egypt's relations with world countries would have been severed and nobody would respect the Egyptians.

Egypt's principled stance in that it cannot support an invasion by any country against another, let alone an Arab country invading a sister country, said Mubarak.

He noted that there was no deviation from this Egyptian stance, Mubarak said that the US had asked Egypt to take part in a war against Libya on the plea that Tripoli was posing a threat to Cairo and other countries in the region.

He explained that the US intelligence service chief had visited him a few years ago in Borg el- Arab and broached the issue with him.

President Mubarak said that his answer to him was that Egypt would never launch a war against any Arab country.

President Mubarak added that the US official asked him to allow US troops to use Egypt as a launching pad for dealing a blow to Libya but, said Mubarak, I told him that if Libya was a threat to Egypt, "I could handle this threat my own way."

President Mubarak, in his interview with media man Emad Eddin Adib, referred that Egypt's army was not one of mercenaries. Rather the Egyptian armed forces' main mission is to protect Egypt, not to attack other countries, he emphasized.

ÊÊÊ Asked about an attempt on his life in Addis Ababa in 1995, where he was supposed to attend an African summit meeting, the Egyptian President recalled that he arrived in Addis Ababa on that day at 7:30 am and had brief talks with the Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi at the airport.

When the motorcade left the airport, said the President, "we all of a sudden were intercepted by a blue car.

President Mubarak said that he ordered the driver to slow down and head back to the airport and then he flew back to Cairo.

Regarding the issue of water quotas among Nile Basin countries, President Mubarak held that any problem should be settled through discussions and dialogue.

Moving to another area of the discussion, President Mubarak expressed belief that economic reform should go hand in hand with political reform.

Egypt has started a long time ago political and economic reform since the days of late President Sadat.

The Egyptian President noted that solving the poverty problem should be through generating more jobs and attracting more investments to the country.

President Mubarak explained that the region suffered from many armed conflicts and wars, let alone terrorism, things that hampered any process of reform.

ÊÊÊ Asked about shelving the law on customs reduction, which was put into effect this year, for almost 24 years, President Mubarak noted that it was useless to put it into force since there were no private sector importers. The public sector was the quarter that was importing; therefore, it was the only party that benefited from that law.

Now the situation is different, said the President, "we have several industrial and commercial cities; we have a private sector that can benefit from-the law."

President Mubarak said that he was working to solve the problems facing ordinary people in Egypt.

He noted that he was always backing the poor segments of the society and was seeking to make life easier for them.

President Mubarak stressed, meanwhile, that the resources of the government were limited and that the government was exerting all possible efforts to address the complaints of the people.

Asked if he believed the Egyptian people though better of the new government of Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, President Mubarak said that actually there was a marked progress in Egypt's economic performance since Nazif came to the premiership.

He noted that all the Egyptian people would feel in the long run this progress reflected on their daily life.

President Mubarak underlined on this score the importance of the role of the press in assessing the performance of the government.

Asked about the effects of amending article No 76 of the Egyptian Constitution -allowing multi-candidate presidential elections -on improving the daily life of the Egyptian national, President Mubarak said every Egyptian should play a role in choosing the one deemed fittest to take over the presidency.

President Mubarak asserted that the coming presidential elections would be fair and free.

Asked about keeping the emergency law in place, adopted after he assumed his post, President Mubarak said the law is dormant and is not applied unless in cases related to terrorism.

Responding to a question on the file of the outlawed Muslim brotherhood in Egypt, President Mubarak said the law in Egypt does not allow forming political parties on religious bases.

Answering a question about a presidential decree issued in 2003 giving Egyptian Copts permits to build churches on the same bases according to which Muslims are given permits to build their mosques, President Mubarak said all Egyptians are treated on equal footing.

The President stressed that the problem had been promptly addressed by the government.

President Mubarak expressed keenness on averting any provocation of religious feelings as there was no discrimination on religious bases in Egypt.

Teasing the President on whether he had made up his mind about running for the coming presidential elections, Mubarak's terse response was "Not Yet."

Previous Stories:
  Mubarak in 'Word for History': Success of the air force strike in October 1973 was the happiest moment in my life   (4/26/2005)
  Al-Akhbar: Mubarak-Putin summit enhances bilateral relations   (4/26/2005)
  Mubarak: Egypt will not live in isolation from the main issues of the region   (4/25/2005)

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