Al-Ahram Weekly Online 26 July - 1 August 2001 Issue No.544
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Current issue | Previous issue | Site map

Diplomatic offensive

EGYPT is encouraged by Europe's efforts to restore stability to the Middle East. On Tuesday, President Hosni Mubarak visited Italy (Rome is current head of the G-8 bloc) and, at the same time, dispatched Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher to Paris with a message for French President Jacques Chirac.

During his short visit to Italy, Mubarak was briefed on what the world's eight most industrialised nations are ready to do to ease tensions between Palestinians and Israelis. G-8 leaders, meeting at a summit in Genoa, have thrown their weight behind a proposal to deploy international observers to monitor Palestinian-Israeli cease-fire violations, as long as the proposal is accepted by both sides.

In talks with Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Mubarak called for the immediate implementation of the G-8 recommendation. "The decision taken at the Genoa summit must be implemented as soon as possible, either by the Europeans or Americans," Mubarak told reporters.

Mubarak placed the blame for the deteriorating situation squarely on Ariel Sharon's hard-line Israeli government, calling its decision to begin a recruitment campaign abroad in preparation for a possible war unhelpful. "The Israelis are escalating the situation by talking about military recruitment," said the president.

For his part, Foreign Minister Maher travelled to France, also on Tuesday, for talks with French President Jacques Chirac. Maher told reporters afterwards that there was complete agreement between Cairo and Paris on the causes of the current crisis.

Both Chirac and Maher agreed on the need to deploy observers on the ground as soon as possible to help determine who is breaking the cease-fire. Because Israel is the party which consistently rejects observers, Maher said that it was clear who is actually breaking the cease-fire with impunity and does not want anyone to monitor the violations.

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