No contradiction between Egypt-Jordan initiative, and Mitchell report

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ali Maher said Wednesday that Egypt welcomes any efforts to boost the Egyptian-Jordanian initiative that is based on the same philosophy of Mitchell report.

Maher stressed anew wide-scale world support for the Egyptian Jordanian initiative because it has a balanced basis and calls for implementing the interim stage requirements, stopping Israeli aggressive policies till violence in the area ends in preparation for resuming the final stage negotiations.

He pointed out that focus is laid at present on efforts by the American peace envoy William Burns who meets both the Palestinian and Israeli sides and is due in Cairo Thursday to brief Egyptian officials on the outcome of his tour of the area and the Palestinian-Israeli-American security meeting.

He denounced the Israeli rejection to go in line with the positive drive supporting the Egyptian-Jordanian initiative and the Mitchell report.

He underlined that Israel has failed to abort the overture and to empty the report from its contents.

He said that the violence is represented in the Israeli practices of blockades and daily aggressions against the unarmed Israeli people.

He described Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon's unilateral ceasefire declaration as "illusive".

He added that consultations by the Arab group in New York are continuous on the drive to be taken as regards calling again for international protection to the Palestinian people.

"The idea of providing the Palestinians with protection is important and necessary," he noted.

He said that the Egyptian drive and President Hosni Mubarak's messages and contacts with US President George Bush in addition to the verbal message conveyed to the American administration by US ambassador in Cairo Daniel Kurtzer were behind the recent American drive.

He stressed anew that Egypt is against the Israeli settlement policy for being a violation of international legitimacy and the international law.

He called for concentrating on stopping settlement activities and violence in order to reach confidence-building stage.

On the Iraqi issue and reports on imposing "smart sanctions" on Baghdad, he said that any sanctions that lead to more suffering for the Iraqi people are stupid. He added that punishing the Iraqi people is inadmissible.

As regards possibilities of improving the Iranian-Egyptian relations, he said that relations with Iran require firm and clear-cut stances.