Moussa demands strategy to protect Arab identity

Addressing the first annual conference of the Egyptian council for foreign affairs, Foreign Minister Amr Moussa stressed the necessity to forge out a strategy for foreign affairs.

"We have to accomplish this through peaceful means, and not necessarily through confrontation.

We should also demonstrate what the Arab culture could contribute for the benefit of all parties," Amr Moussa noted.

"The so-called cultural showdown with Israel exaggerated," added Amr Moussa.

"With peace in the offing, let's forget the confrontation issue and deal with one another," he said.

"On the future prospects regarding the declaration of the Palestinian state," Moussa said there has been a major headway towards recognizing the Palestinian state, and the final status of the Palestinians, adding there was no objection to that.

"The US administration, the main peace sponsor, has been onerously seeking over 8 years of efforts to crystallize the Palestinian-Israeli file, and therefore it would be deplorable if the term of administration came to an end without reaching a definite end," Moussa said.

He called on the US side to crystallize the final status in accordance with the principles agreed on since Camp David peace talks.

Amr Moussa expected that the next weeks would witness a progress and lead up to a clearer vision of the Palestinian state that would necessarily be declared this year.

He referred to the rift between the Arabs and Israel on the issue of disarmament and mass-destruction weapons, calling for an immediate review of these files instead of waiting until peace is achieved.

He stressed the impossibility of accepting a unpopular nuclear system in the region.

"It is possible to accept a balanced nuclear system whereas, a sole nuclear power in the region is undoubtedly unacceptable," Moussa asserted.

"The conference on Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review held recently in New York admitted that Israel was the only country in the Mideast region that declined the NPT," Moussa said calling on the Jewish state to open its nuclear stockpile to international inspection.

Egypt and the rest of Arab nation will see to it that Israel join the NPT, Moussa noted, adding that this would take a long time.