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Monday, August 17, 1998
President Hosni Mubarak has maintained that justice stands out as the real guarantee against terrorism. "Feeling wronged leads to the uncontrollable boiling point which consequently leads to desperate acts victimising innocent people," said the Egyptian leader in an exclusive interview with Samir Ragab, Editor-in-Chief of "Al Gomhuria" daily and "Mayo" weekly. Mubarak reiterated that Egypt stands firmly against all forms of violence and terrorism "whatever its reasons". He renewed his condemnation of the deadly bomb-ings at the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and Saturday's blast in Northern Ireland. "These incidents were horrendous and victimised many people in the three countries. We felt deep-shocked and sorry for those victims who fell for no guilt of their own. We hope such reckless acts will end and their perpetrators will realise that they solve no problems or lead to any goals other than shedding the blood of innocents," Mubarak told Ragab who is also the Board Chairman of Dar Al Tahrir Printing and Publishing House. Twin explo-sions in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam have claimed the lives of around 240 and left over 5,000 others injured. Around 28 people, mean-while, were killed in a huge bomb blast which rocked the centre of Northern Irish town of Omagh on Saturday. "These acts lend credence to the call we made more than once to the world com-munity to join hands in order to stand against ter-rorism and convene an international conference to this end," added the Egyptian leader. Highlighting Egypt's time-honoured links with African countries, President Mubarak said that immediately in the aftermath of the Kenya-Tanazania explo-sions Egypt outright con-demned such criminal acts, and decided to dispatch, big medical team to carry out micro-surgeries and offer medical assistance. Minister of Health and Population Dr. Ismail Sallam arrived in Nairobi last Friday leading a 13--member team of top Egyptian surgeons where they carried out around 80 operations. "Egypt, which is deemed the big sisterly country of a African states, has never left these coun-tries in the lurch." he added. "All know that late President Gamal Abdul Naser had devoted the bulk of the national Egyptian action to liberate the continent's states and support its people to leave behind back. wardness and forge ahead to cope with models life... This is Egypt's role which it has and will never relin-quish ." "Taking up the Middle East peace scene, Mubarak blamed Israel for the failure of the US peace initiative. "We hope that the Israelis will reconsider (their rejec-tion) and accept this initia-tive as a step on the path to fulfilling the just peace we all are after," he said. Israel's Likud-led government has resisted US pro-posals to hgend over 13 per cant of the West Bank terri-tory to the Palestinians in return for stricter security guarantees. The Palestinians have accepted the plan. The Egyptian leader added that a fair peace held the key to stability in the Middle East. He said that he would confer tomorrow with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to tackle the latest peace development, including the outcome of the Palestinian-Israeli talks. "When the Palestinians announce they have reached a dead end in their talks with the Israeli side, we will acquaint the Arab leaders with the situation, If they decide, on convening the summit, then good preparations have to be conducted, its agenda has to be specified and the sought-after goals identi-fied. We want it a political, not publicity summit," said Mubarak. On his talks with the leaders of the Sudanese opposition late last week, Mubarak said: "This meeting was held in the interest of our brothers in the Sudan. And I was keen to lay emphasis on an important principle off which Egypt never veers, i.e. the unity of the brother-l Sudan, the necessity of stopping bloodletting... and reaching a solution which is acceptable to all parties and preserves Sudan's territorial integrity." Meanwhile, President Mubarak ruled out a cabi-net or governors reshuffle in Egypt "We are keen on stabilising things so that every official will do his job well," he pointed out. |
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