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Sunday, December 16, 2001
President Hosni Mubarak has warned that Israeli escalation of attacks against the Palestinians will lead to unlimited future dangers. They imagine that when they eliminate the Palestinian Authority, they will get the upper hand. On the contrary, a state of chaos inside and outside (Israel) will prevail, the Egyptian leader said in an interview to Samir Ragab, the chairman and editor of Al Gomhuria. The policy they (Israelis) are pursuing is short-sighted. It will lead to no solution. Rather it will lead to catastrophes. Mubarak said that he did not believe that Palestinian official Mahmoud Abbas, better known as Abu Mazen, would replace Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. Whoever would take over should wield popularity which would not come about without launching operations against Israel in response to The Egyptian leader termed as a bizarre act Israel's barring of Arafat from leaving the Palestinian self-rule areas to attend an emergency meeting of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) last week. Israel on Wednesday said it would break off all contacts with Arafat whom it termed as irrelevant. The Palestinian Authority's installations have been the target of a sustained wave of Israeli attacks. Mubarak said that Middle East violence would continue until Israel renounced its belief that its repressive measures against the Palestinians would make it feel secure. Security and peace will not be fulfilled unless a sovereign Palestinian state is established. This cannot be realised without negotiations and easing the siege of the Palestinian people. Mubarak said that contacts were constant with the US and Europe to re-establish stability in Afghanistan through reconciling the warring factions there. At the same time, the US administration is making intense efforts parallel to its anti-terror campaign so as to activate the peace process in the Middle East, he said. But day after day, Israel is unprepared to enter a peaceful settlement. Mubarak emphasised that the world war against terror would not be ephemeral. It would be a mistake to presume that this war would come to an end with the end of the current military campaign in response to the September 11 events. The US has been leading a sustained military campaign in Afghanistan to punish militant Taliban for harbouring Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden whom Washington accuses of masterminding the September deadly assaults. Mubarak said that grappling with terrorism called for a rational and long-term policy based on international cooperation. He urged the root causes behind terrorism be thoroughly handled. I call on the international community to join hands to find solutions to the contemporary international problems which engender feelings of (frustration and despair), notably the Middle East. Economic openess and globalisation should be pursued in a way that would allow everybody to benefit from them. Mubarak renewed his suggestion for convening an international conference under the auspices of the UN to provide a clear-cut definition of terrorism and draw the line between terror and resistance to foreign occupation. "Defending the national soil is not terrorism", he said. Mubarak recalled that since 1986 he has warned against the global threat of terrorism and called for effective measures to counter it. Some at that time claimed that Egypt was suffering from terrorism due to socio-economic problems it was experiencing. But the September 11 events proved that the international community has been too late in according enough attention to this evil and to uprooting it, he told Al Gomhuria editor. He was refuting a claim in the Western media that terrorism had originated in the Arab countries. The Egyptian leader renewed his support for the creation of a common Arab market, saying it was the sole guarantee to Arabs to be an influential economic power. I think that the September 11 events and their aftermath of an anti-Arab campaign in the US and Europe emphasise this point and accentuate the importance of getting together in one economic bloc so as to be of influence on the international arena. He dismissed as baseless alleged trouble in Egypt's relations with the US and Europe over its anti-terror stand. We frankly declared that we will not contribute troops to the operations in Afghanistan because such participation is ruled by strict constitutional and parliamentary criteria which are not met in the current situation. This stand has drawn welcome and full understanding from everybody, said the Egyptian leader. |
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