'Land-for-security' slammed

By Nevine Khalil

Presidents Mubarak and Assad during talks in Sharm Al-Sheikh

The four-hour talks in the Red Sea resort of Sharm Al-Sheikh, also focused on the US-brokered Wye River agreement between the Palestinians and Israelis.

Both Cairo and Damascus were dissatisfied with the agreement signed by Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on 23 October in Washington. Mubarak said on Sunday that Cairo does not "object to the agreement as long as the Palestinians agree to it, since it is their business".

Asked whether Egypt's cool reception of the agreement was behind a foreign media campaign claiming that Copts faced persecution, Mubarak pointed an accusing finger at Netanyahu's office. "I heard that the Israeli prime minister's weekly report [on the Internet] carried these allegations, which is very indicative. Are they behind the issue or not?" he said.

Mubarak also criticised Netanyahu's attempts to reformulate the basis of the peace process by over-emphasising Israel's security needs. "The peace process would be pointless if [Netanyahu] attempted to replace the land-for-peace formula with a land-for-security one," Mubarak said. "This [land-for-peace] is a basic principle which is acknowledged by everyone."

Mubarak would not confirm whether the Wye agreement could open the door for talks on the Syrian and Lebanese tracks to be revived. "It depends what Israel will do," he said. "What is important is the implementation."

He called on Israel to "create an atmosphere conducive to reviving confidence among the parties; otherwise the situation will be difficult." The president noted that Netanyahu's plan to resume settlement building in the West Bank would only deepen Arab mistrust of Israel's intentions.

Syria was not encouraged by the agreement, which ended a 19-month deadlock between the Palestinians and the Israelis. "Syria's position is to resume negotiations at the point at which they stopped," Mubarak told reporters after Assad's departure. "[Netanyahu] refuses to do this." He said Syria had "lost all confidence" in the Israeli government, an attitude which Tel Aviv must work at changing.

Peace talks with Syria started soon after the 1991 Madrid conference, which launched the current peace process. Negotiations came to a halt in 1996 after a series of bombings against Israeli citizens. Syria insists that Israel, led by then Prime Minister Shimon Peres, had agreed to hand over the Golan Heights in exchange for security arrangements.

The incumbent Likud government has said it does not recognise any verbal agreements reached by the previous Labour cabinet. Netanyahu's position is that negotiations should start from scratch.

Mubarak last met his Syrian counterpart in early October, when the Egyptian leader began a round of shuttle diplomacy to defuse tension between Damascus and Ankara. Cairo's intervention averted a possible military showdown between the two neighbours, after Turkey accused Syria of supporting rebel Kurdish guerrillas. Syrian officials, for their part, accused Israel of engineering the crisis after strengthening its military ties with Turkey.

Cairo, however, managed to get Syria and Turkey to sit at the negotiating table to discuss their differences. Mubarak said the talks, held at below-ministerial levels, deal with "all the issues of concern between them", including security and water issues. "Egyptian efforts managed to build up confidence between Syria and Turkey," Mubarak said, "but we are not interfering in the details of the negotiations because they are the responsibility of the two sides."

Syria and Turkey signed an agreement on 20 October, in which Damascus promised to end its support of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), including providing refuge to rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan.