Mubarak: The Egyptian people will not forgive me if I visit Israel now

Egyptian dailies on Wednesday quoted President Mubarak as saying that the Egyptian people "will not forgive him" a visit to Israel at the current time.

These papers added that Mubarak's statements were made on Tuesday in Paris upon Mubarak's meeting with a delegation representing the representative council of the Jewish community in France.

A member of the Jewish council asked Mubarak about the reason which prevents him from visiting Israel, and Mubarak said, "I was about to hold a meeting with the former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in the Israeli city of Beer al-Sabaa, but he was assassinated in November 1995."

For its part, the Egyptian daily al-Ahram reported that Mubarak said, "If I visit Israel now, the Egyptian people will not forgive me, especially with the existence of a person (on top of the Israeli government) such as Benjamin Netanyahu, who does not want peace nor honor what had been agreed upon or carry out reached commitments."