Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 5 - 11 October 2000 Issue No. 502
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

	Egypt Elections Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters

Summit call

By Nevine Khalil

President Hosni Mubarak will meet today with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak in Sharm Al-Sheikh to talk peace and possibly bring an end to violent clashes between Palestinians and Israelis. Mubarak's move is an attempt to give the two men the opportunity "to sit together and discuss all matters in an open and honest manner," Mubarak said. He added that he would "attend the beginning of the meeting and then leave them to discuss the details."

Arafat and Barak will be arriving from Paris, where they separately met yesterday with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. They may eventually meet face-to-face in the presence of US President Bill Clinton, Mubarak told reporters on Tuesday.

Cairo also called for an Arab summit, possibly in the first week of next January, to address pressing issues concerning Arab solidarity, inter-Arab cooperation and the peace process. Mubarak said on Monday that Arab leaders should close ranks soon "in order to avoid disintegration, or we will never achieve solidarity or reach a solution for any Arab issue." The proposal was met by a positive response from key Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait and the Palestinian Authority.

Arab foreign ministers will converge on Cairo on 21 October to prepare for the summit, under the umbrella of the Arab League. Mubarak said on Tuesday that a summit was necessary because "there are many important and pressing issues that need to be discussed by Arab leaders, in addition to the Palestinian problem and the peace process."

During a meeting with Arafat on Saturday, Mubarak was briefed on the scope and repercussions of the violence in Jerusalem after a provocative visit to Al-Haram Al-Sharif in Jerusalem by hard-line Likud leader Ariel Sharon on Thursday. Arafat also updated Mubarak on last week's separate meetings between the Americans and Palestinian and Israeli negotiators in the US.

In a telephone conversation with Barak the same day, Mubarak expressed regret over the "negative impact the clashes have over the atmosphere necessary for the peace process [to make progress]." Mubarak's office had earlier issued a strong statement condemning Israeli violence against the Palestinians.

On Monday, Mubarak warned that settling the future of Jerusalem will be precarious because it is "sensitive, complicated and a matter of faith." Mubarak ridiculed proposals which do not give the Palestinians full sovereignty over Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem. "What does sovereignty above-ground and below-ground mean?" he wondered, in criticism of a proposal to give above-ground sovereignty to the Palestinians and below-ground sovereignty to Israelis. "How many metres underground do they propose?" he scoffed. The president also objected to proposals that either the UN Security Council or the Organisation of the Islamic Conference's Jerusalem Committee exercise sovereignty over the Holy City. "I repeat: this is occupied land that must be returned to its rightful owners," he said.

The week-long clashes which caused the death of some 60 Palestinians and the injury of over 1,000 others led Mubarak to affirm his call for an Arab summit on Monday, following extensive talks with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad in Cairo.

Al-Assad said that convening an Arab summit soon was "a necessity," despite the fact that Arab ranks are in disorder. "In the past, there was opposition to holding a summit because of the huge differences among Arab states," he explained, "but if this argument prevails, we will never see a summit materialise."

On his first foreign tour as president, Al-Assad's mettle was tested both behind closed doors and before media representatives, when he and Mubarak gave a 50-minute press conference. After three months in power since the death of his father, Hafez, last June, Al-Assad hammered out with Mubarak a plethora of issues related to the Middle East peace process, Arab solidarity, sanctions against Iraq and Syrian-Lebanese relations. Following his arrival in Cairo on Sunday afternoon, Assad went straight into talks with Mubarak that lasted five hours.

Mubarak later said the young Syrian president left "an excellent impression" on him because "he thinks clearly, is well-informed, meticulous and cautious."

Asked if he was prepared to meet with Barak next month in Marseilles, as proposed by the French, Al-Assad said he had not made up his mind, adding that he was not seeking "cosmetic solutions, but core progress." At the same time, Al-Assad was adamant that the Israeli government should first show good faith and an ability to deliver before Syria resumes talks which came to a halt in January. "The ball is in Israel's court because it has not proven its sincere intentions for peace, or an ability to take a clear and brave decision to realise peace," the young leader stated.

Al-Assad said that activating the Syrian track of negotiations depends on three parties, namely the Syrian-Lebanese leadership, the Israeli state and the US as the main sponsor of the process. "We are sincere in our call for a just and comprehensive peace; we sense sincerity on the American side, but the Israeli position is vague," he noted.

Mubarak agreed that "in order for a peace to be permanent, it has to be just. Give everybody their rights," he said. The Egyptian leader urged perseverance, saying that "we have to struggle until we reach peace."

Quizzed several times during the marathon press conference on the Syrian military presence in Lebanon, and when it will come to an end, Al-Assad said, "Syria and Lebanon interact at the level of governments; any other [position] is a minor detail which does not concern us." Mubarak, too, defended Syria's presence in Lebanon, saying, "Syria ensures equilibrium and protects stability in Lebanon."

Asked on other Arab issues, Al-Assad called for lifting the decade-long UN sanctions against Iraq. "After 10 years of sanctions, we realise that the purpose was not the punishment of Iraq for invading Kuwait, but rather its complete destruction," he said. "I don't think that is in the interest of the Arabs." The Syrian president emphasised that "alleviating the suffering of the Iraqi people is now the duty of Arab countries."

Mubarak ruled out that the Egyptian government will send relief flights to Baghdad, as many other countries have done over the past two weeks. He said Egyptian aid was reaching Iraqis a long time before the recent campaign to defy the UN-imposed air embargo. "It is up to the private sector," he said. "If [they] want to send a plane [to Iraq], we will not object. We will do like the others did and inform the [UN] sanctions committee, that's all."

 

	weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg