Monday, March 27, 2000

March 27, 2000Mubarak in an interview with the "The Boston Globe" Newspaper




President Hosni Mubarak, expressed optimism that an Israel-Syria deal was within reach.

In an interview with the "The Boston Globe" Newspaper yesterday at the time of Clinton's meeting with Syrian President Hafez Assad, Mubarak predicted a settlement could happen in ''two or three months, maximum,'' adding that leaders in both countries have told him last week they are ready for a deal.

US officials regard him as the lone credible leader in the Arab World on peace, able to reach out to the United States, Israel, and the Arab nations.

Mubarak has especially stepped up his contacts with Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel. ''Mubarak may be the one that now talks turkey with Israel,'' said one US official yesterday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

''For every single person man, woman, and child - in the Middle East, peace is so important to us, for this area has been living for about 50 years with problems and war,'' He said.

Mubarak, on a week-long visit to Washington, also said the Middle East needs to rid itself of weapons of mass destruction. He said sanctions against Iraq have failed and Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's regime was ''stronger than ever before.'' He also mentioned Egypt's hopes to become a high-tech Mecca.

He declined to comment on the investigation of EgyptAir Flight 990 that plunged into the Atlantic Ocean last October. Some US media reports have said the Egyptian government pressured the National Transportation Safety Board against turning the case over to the FBI.

Mubarak responded: ''We are not putting pressures. ... How could we exert pressure on the American investigators? How?''

Yet despite the wide range of topics, he kept returning to the prospects for peace, both the Israeli-Palestinian talks and the Israel-Syria track.

Mubarak said he told Barak in a telephone conversation Thursday, ''you shouldn't create any problem during the negotiations [on Lebanon] because the Syrians may refuse anything with Lebanon for the time being. Lebanon is going to join the negotiations later on.''

For Israel, a deal with Syria necessarily involves Lebanon, from which Israel plans to withdraw troops by July. As part of a deal and its troop withdrawal, Israel would want to negotiate an end to border skirmishes between its troops and Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon. Syria, which has 40,000 troops in Lebanon, is the main powerbroker there.

Speaking bluntly, Mubarak gave his vision of how peace would unfold.

First, the Israel-Syria deal would have to entail the complete return of the Golan Heights captured by Israel in 1967.

''President Assad is keen on peace. He wants a fair solution, going back to the borders occupied since 1967,'' he said.

Barak, he said, ''told me several times that he is going on the same track'' as the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Rabin, Mubarak said, ''personally told me that he was ready to give back the Golan to the Syrians, but he wanted to know what he was getting back in detail.''

That conversation, Mubarak said, led him to tell the Syrians then to ''do just as we did with the Israelis'' - gain back every inch of land captured in the 1967 Six-Day War in return for peace.

If Syria and Lebanon reach peace with Israel, what would happen to the Syrian troops now in Lebanon? Many Lebanese say their land is occupied by two armies, Israel by force and Syria by invitation. ''After a comprehensive peace settlement is reached,'' Mubarak said, ''I think most of the Syrian troops will go back to Syria.''

But comprehensive peace won't come, the Egyptian President said, until Israel reaches an agreement with the Palestinians over who controls Jerusalem, resettlement of 3 million Palestinian refugees, water rights and Palestinian statehood.

True peace, he said, won't arrive until the region rids itself of weapons of mass destruction. Israel is commonly believed to be one of the nine countries in the world to possess nuclear weapons. Israel, Egypt, and Syria are all generally regarded by nonproliferation experts to have chemical weapons facilities and missile-delivering capabilities.

With numerous weapons of mass destruction in the region, ''this will make everybody suspicious,'' he said.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres ''once said that whenever we reach a comprehensive settlement in the whole area, we don't need this, we will discuss this,'' Mubarak said, regarding Israel's nuclear program. ''I hope they could honor these words.''


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