El-Baz: US has no right to ask Egypt about Copts' situation

After the meeting of Egypt's President Mubarak with Frank Wolf a member of appropriations in the US Congress, Osama El-Baz, the Egyptian president's political advisor for political affairs, said that there is no Christian minority in Egypt: "We do not have a minority of Christians but citizens on an equal level with the Moslems in everything."

El-Baz also stated that the US has no right to ask the Egyptian government or the Egyptian nation, pointing out that Egypt cannot be exposed to inquiries on any level about its methods of dealing with Christians. This, he said, is purely Egypt's concern, and one upon which Moslems and Christians have equally agreed.

El-Baz said that Wolf came to Egypt to acquaint himself with the situation of Christians in Egypt and not to conduct an inquiry or investigation.

Then El-Baz said that Egypt refuses any foreign intervention in any way in its internal affairs and that the Christians were the first who refused the foreign inference, saying that Christians in Egypt are protected by Egypt's Moslems, government and leadership.

US Congressman Wolf is a leading sponsor in the Congress of a law that would punish countries accused of religious persecution.