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Illogical
conference
Egypt weighs in on latest
developments
(cairolive.com,
April 18, 2002) "The Jewish lobby in America has reached its
peak in glory and power. It has never reached this size in action
and effect before. But it will not continue as it runs contrary to
the values and principles of the American people," Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak told the Middle East News Agency in an
interview published in full in most of today's papers.
Referring to the
latest suicide bomb in Jerusalem, Mubarak says he told US Secretary of State
Colin Powell that "it is wrong if anyone thinks
that the recent Jerusalem operation will be the last one."
Commentators
were quick to assess that the fact that Powell's return trip to
Egypt after his tour of the crisis areas did not include a meeting
with Mubarak meant that Egypt was disappointed in the US effort to
broker a peace.
One thing that
came out of Powell's trip was an idea -- proffered by Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon -- that a regional peace conference sponsored by
the US should be held to discuss the issues as hand. The concept
prompted Mubarak to clearly state that "It is illogical to convene an international
conference with such a deteriorated situation in the occupied
territories, without an immediate cease-fire and the withdrawal of
Israeli forces from Palestinian towns."
Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher was quoted in Tuesday's
papers as saying that Egypt had not been formally notified of any peace conference proposal, but that
it welcomed all efforts, as long as they were built " on the previous moves."
Amongst those was the 1991 Madrid conference which began the Mideast peace
process -- now practically defunct. Maher said Madrid " has laid very important principles
that must be preserved."
Arab League Secretary General
and former Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa also weighed in on
the Israeli peace proposal. In London, where he was meeting UK
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, Moussa described the Israeli proposal
as "illogical", and said it seemed more like a "public relations campaign" rather than
a
serious step.
According to a statement released by the
League, many Arab foreign ministers had expressed
"complete doubt in the Israeli government's intentions."
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