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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 January 2000 Issue No. 465 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 January 2000 Issue No. 465
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Coordinating peace moves
PRESIDENT Hosni Mubarak is scheduled to hold talks with British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook today to discuss the European role in regional peacemaking. Cook's visit is part of continuing consultations between Cairo and various European envoys on the peace process and European-Egyptian cooperation, as well as next April's European-African summit which will be held in Cairo.
On Tuesday, Mubarak was informed by a European Union (EU) team, including Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana, that Europe was worried about delays in regional peacemaking. The EU team, which also included Portuguese Foreign Minister Jaime Gama, whose country currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, and Europe's Middle East envoy Miguel Moratinos, was in Cairo on the last leg of a regional tour that also included Syria, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories.
"We expressed the EU's concern for the delay in the peace process and we hope that in the near future the parties will be able to overcome the problems and difficulties that prevent progress," Gama said.
Syria and Israel have postponed peace talks which began last week and Israel has delayed the hand-over of 6.1 per cent of West Bank land to the Palestinians. Since the 1993 Oslo accords, Europe has attempted to play a diplomatic role to match its economic muscle and has already offered Syria security, economic and technical support once it clinches a peace deal with Israel.
President Mubarak with Portugal's Gama, Algeria's Yousfi, France's Vedrine and Senator Daschle
Alongside the peace process, talks also covered cooperation between Europe, on the one hand, and Africa and the Mediterranean basin countries, on the other, as well as a summit of EU and African leaders to be held on 3-4 April in Egypt. Gama said that Egypt and the EU had "reached a conclusion on a cooperation agreement," which is expected to be signed "soon".
Also on Tuesday, Mubarak met with Algerian Foreign Minister Youssef Yousfi who conveyed a message from Algeria's President Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika, the incumbent chairman of the 53-nation Organisation of African Unity (OAU). Yousfi briefed Mubarak on recent developments in Algeria, and Foreign Minister Amr Moussa said that Cairo supported Bouteflika's attempts for domestic reconciliation.
The EU team's visit came one day after French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine held talks in Cairo with Mubarak and Moussa. During the talks on Monday, the top French diplomat reviewed the "positive and negative developments" on the Syrian-Israeli and Palestinian-Israeli tracks, according to Moussa. Vedrine was optimistic about the future of the peace process "despite all the difficulties". "Paris encouraged the Syrians and Israelis to resume negotiations, and now we call on the Palestinians and Israelis to overcome the core problems," he said.
Cairo is also closely following Washington's attempts to bring viewpoints closer between Arab and Israeli negotiators. Mubarak expressed optimism for progress on all peace tracks during his meeting with a delegation of US legislators visiting Cairo.
Headed by Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, the delegation discussed for nearly one hour on Sunday bilateral relations, the peace process and the president's upcoming visit to the United States in March. Daschle praised Mubarak for his "leading role" in achieving peace in the region, as well as for his keeping US-Egyptian ties close.
Media bonanza
PRESIDENT Hosni Mubarak discussed on Monday the future prospects for the Egyptian media with Prime Minister Atef Ebeid and Information Minister Safwat El-Sherif, reports Hanan Sabra. At the start of a series of meetings the president will be holding with his top aides, Mubarak approved the establishment of a free media zone in the 6th of October City, one of the capital's southern satellite towns, to give a badly-needed boost to the development of the media in the Middle East.
El-Sherif announced following the meeting that the city would be a launch site for Egyptian, Arab and foreign television channels which will be granted licences to transmit from Egypt.
The private media zone will be owned by the Egyptian Radio and Television Union, the Media Production City Company and the Egyptian Satellite Company. The zone will house the Media Production City Company, the Egyptian Satellite Company, the Cable News Network of Egypt (CNE), the Nile Communication Networks Company (NCN), the Specialised Channels Company, still under construction, and their transmission centres, in addition to all Egyptian companies active in production, distribution and encrypting. Companies operating in the zone will be exempt from taxes and customs.
The plan still requires the cabinet's approval.
Mubarak has approved the establishment of privately-owned stations that may take the form of joint-venture companies and that will have the right to operate both general and specialised channels.
The Egyptian Radio and Television Union is intended to be a main shareholder in these companies to maintain control over their programme content. The information minister said that Mubarak would open new studios in the Media Production City by the next media festival. It is expected that the number of studios will rise to 29 by the year 2001. Moreover, NileSat 2 will start operating in July 2001 running 72 channels.
