Mubarak: Peace progress has stalled since Bush assumed office

Egypt'a President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt has warned that any Palestinian prime minister will fail to achieve peace if he is not supported by the Palestinian national authority and Israel.

In statements to the press yesterday upon the inauguration of a technological project to the west of Cairo, Mubarak added "any of the two sides if violates this demand will cause the failure of the operation as a whole.. and this does not serve the interests."

He said that the US President George W. Bush says he is committed to the Roadmap plan for peace. He also said "it is important that sides are cooperating and that there are inter- Palestinian cooperation and we are pushing the Palestinian side to cooperate but it is also necessary that the Israeli side will support this operation."

"I have said the roadmap is the only model we have and if it was not applied, matters would be very difficult," said Mubarak.

He said that the US elections are near, adding that during the time of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, the two sides negotiated in Taba and made many concessions ahead of the US elections. "But both sides opted to wait for the new US administration in the hope it would bring about certain gains but this did not happen," he said.

Meantime, the usual yearly trip by Mubarak to USA at this time is not taking place.