Answering a question about his opinion of how the U.S. and international community responded to the crisis in Lebanon, President Mubarak, in an interview with the US "TIME" magazine, said the US and international reply was too little, too late. Mubarak said the emergency meeting with Arab envoys hosted by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Rome Wednesday failed to halt the bloodshed.

President Mubarak complained that the crisis "could have been contained at its early stage" and stressed the need for accelerating international diplomatic moves for halting raging war in Lebanon. The President said current Israeli military operations are a collective punishment of the Lebanese and Palestinians. Israel's military campaign in Lebanon, Mubarak said, "Went way too far" and has "triggered an increasing rage within the Arabs, Moslems and worldwide".

Mubarak expressed pessimism about resolving the crisis. "There is no light at the end of the tunnel," he said. Mubarak also revealed details of the Egyptian mediation that nearly defused the escalating Middle East crisis before it spread from the Gaza Strip to Israel's northern front on July 12.

On the eve of the outbreak of hostilities in Lebanon, Mubarak said, Egyptian intelligence operatives almost brokered a deal for the release of an Israeli soldier kidnapped by militants of the Palestinian Hamas group based in Gaza. But he said that certain third parties "aborted our efforts". He also revealed that he asked Syrian President Bashar Assad to intervene with Hezbollah to win the freedom of the two Israeli soldiers the Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim group captured to ignite the fighting in Lebanon.

President Mubarak said that the current escalations in Lebanon and Gaza are just symptoms of the chronic unsettled situation in the Middle East. No progress was achieved with regard to the Road Map, he added. The two-state vision declared by President Bush did not move an inch.

Egypt's choice is to play a role that contributes positively and constructively to the Middle East peace, security and stability, Mubarak noted. No other role could take place at the expense of Egypt and the other moderate states of the area and no regional security arrangements for the Gulf or the Middle East could bypass or marginalize us, Mubarak stressed.

As to Hezbollah, they are part and parcel of the Lebanese people's fabric. However, nobody should be allowed to establish a state within the state, neither in Lebanon nor elsewhere, Mubarak said.