Settlements… a time bomb

There is no way back to the track of peace settlement in the Middle East or launching serious peace negotiations in light of Israel's continuous construction of settlements. This is because settlements and peace cannot go together. Moreover, settlements are a time bomb that explodes in the face of the Palestinians everyday, sabotaging the available opportunity for peace in the region.

In this regard, the Arabs are not the only party aware of the seriousness of the continuation of building settlements, for the US Administration also started to take a clear stance on this issue. Last week talks between the US and Israel failed to reach an understanding on the latter's halting settlement construction. There is yet another round of talks to be held in the coming few days, especially with the US Administration stressing that its stance on freezing settlements has not changed.

Add to this, the US rejects Israel's proposition presented by its Defense Minister Ehud Barak on partially halting construction inside settlements for several months with the continuation of building thousands of houses alleging that they are under construction.

In this respect, the freeze on settlements must coincide with clear-cut pledges and guarantees regarding removing these settlements, especially in areas within the proposed Palestinian state, which is a key constituent of the two-state solution.

So, Arab efforts must be intensified with the US Administration and the EU to continue pressuring Israel to stop settlement activities and present the issue at an international level, especially to the UN, as the continuation of settlement activities jeopardizes all peace chances and leads to deteriorating the situation in the Middle East.

Egypt and NAM Summit

The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit is to be held in Sharm El-Sheikh on July 15 and 16. Egypt is one of the NAM founders in 1955. The NAM has come a long way making achievements and facing challenges. Indeed, Egypt played an active role in founding and improving that Movement. Over half a century, Egypt's role within the NAM has been so evident.

Since its creation, the NAM has contributed to ending colonialism, advocating the right to self-determination, opposing racial discrimination, promoting the principle of peaceful coexistence and disarmament issues, strengthening the UN role and activating that of third world countries. The NAM also focused on economic issues demanding a new world economic order observing the special values of nations, peoples and cultures.

The NAM leaders were Gamal Abdul-Nasser, Nehru, Tito and Sukarno who all helped the NAM survive, activated its role, and participated in the making of international decisions and influencing international politics for half a century in a unique international atmosphere, helping defend developing countries. The coming NAM Summit is to be held to upgrade the Movement to stand up to challenges.

• Barak and Mitchell review in London halting on settlement activities
- Carter calls on Obama to take more decisive and definite stances against Israel's policies

• Two more swine flu cases detected in Egypt
- 12,000 cases detected in 48 hours in world countries
- Difficulty in producing vaccines; 90% of vaccines will go to rich countries

• Nile Basin initiative donors urges collective partnership for promoting cooperation programs

• Nazif at opening session of the International Conference on Social Policies: Developing 1,000 poor villages, Egypt managed to confront world food crisis

• The Australian consultative company starts field visits to choose nuke station location

• Prior to the second meeting between Mitchell and Barak tomorrow, Obama urges Palestinians, Israelis to fulfill their commitments to starting serious peace negotiations

• President Mubarak stresses necessity for enhancing judicial independence

• Foreign Minister holds talks with US envoy on Afghanistan

• First swine flu case detected in Syria

• Health Minister presents an Egyptian proposition to WHO on measuring the severity of the swine flu epidemic

• Nile Basin Initiative donors: The Nile water is sufficient for the ten member states, provided a Nile basin Commission is set up

• Obama urges Israel and the Palestinians again to fulfill peace commitments

• Foreign Minister: Egypt's proposal steered AU Summit away from failure

• Two new swine flu cases detected in Egypt
- WHO calls on Saudi Arabia to take precautions during performing pilgrimage

• Minister of Communications, Information Technology: Work groups implement agreements with Washington

• Nazif before the Second International Conference on Social Policies: A national project for upgrading 1,000 villages


• Launching international software finals: "Suzanne Mubarak" international award for protecting children on the internet

Time for easy access to water is over

Are we approaching the time when the price of a clean water barrel is higher than that of an oil barrel in our Arab World?

We hope that will not be the case in the near or far future. Of course, mere wishes do not count as there have to be intense efforts, preparations and serious executive steps to insure water security. Warnings regarding this issue must not be taken lightly as was the case with the previous warnings regarding food insecurity and Arab self-sufficiency.

Actually, water security has become a matter of life and death in all Arab countries as all Arab countries are in danger. Instead of preparing for future wars over water resources, we must expedite our efforts to implement the first strategy to insure Arab water security, adopted recently at the First Session of the Arab Ministerial Council for Water in Algeria under the slogan of "Time for easy access to water is over".

Such a strategy, that is supposed to be applicable until 2025 to confront water scarcity in the Arab World, should keep us away from wars and armed conflicts with neighboring and Nile mouth countries to preserve and improve our water resources which represent a vital source of life. What really counts is that water ministers' decision on carrying out the project of integrated water resources management to achieve sustainable development over five years urgently requires the Nile Basin Initiative member states to pay $ 10 million. We do hope that the decision will not be just one of the many other Arab joint action decisions made unanimously without having them implemented due to countries' falling short of paying their quotas.

By: Amin Mohamed Amin

Alexandria International Song Festival to open Sunday

On 5/7/2009, Alexandria Governor is to open Alexandria International Song Festival under the auspices of the Ministers of Culture and Tourism in a celebration held at Sayyed Darwish Theater (Alexandria Opera). The opening ceremony includes concerts, singing and other shows. The festival will also pay tribute to late Musician Mohamed Fawzy, to whom this year's festival is dedicated, in recognition of his major contributions to fast music.