Al-Ahram Weekly | Egypt | Juggling priorities

		17 - 23 October 2002 Issue No. 608 Home news	Current issue Previous issue Site map
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Recommend this page

Juggling priorities
Egypt insists that Iraq's standoff with the US should not overshadow the dire situation in the Palestinian territories, writes Nevine Khalil

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Mubarak and Iliescu tell reporters that Israeli policies have added to the tensions in the occupied territories (photo: Mohamed Abdel-Fattah)
During numerous discussions this week, Egyptian officials tried to rally greater international support against US strikes on Iraq, but they also remained focused on the need to make progress in the peace process. President Hosni Mubarak met with French President Jacques Chirac yesterday in Alexandria to discuss tensions in the Middle East caused by Washington's insistence on going ahead with plans to bomb Iraq under the pretext that Baghdad possesses weapons of mass destruction. The two leaders also discussed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's aggressive policies against the Palestinians and their leadership. The French proposed the issuing of a UN resolution regarding weapons inspections in Iraq, and mentioned the possibility of an additional resolution about the use of force if Baghdad does not comply.
Chirac, along with many heads of state and international figures, was in Egypt to attend the inauguration of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Also attending was Romanian President Ion Iliescu, who held extensive talks with Mubarak on Tuesday about the situation in the Palestinian territories and Iraq. In a joint news conference with Iliescu, Mubarak cautioned that striking Iraq will not "calm or scare" the Arab world into submission or silence. "We cannot stop the US from bombing Iraq, but we continue to honestly express our views on the matter to decision-makers in the US in order to avoid dire consequences," noted Mubarak. He continued, saying, that once UN inspectors ascertain that Iraq no longer possesses weapons of mass destruction, "it would only be fair to search Israel for [such] weapons because they, too, represent a threat to the region."
At the same time, Mubarak said that neglecting the Palestinian-Israeli issue for the sake of the Iraqi issue was a mistaken course of action. "Focusing attention on the Iraqi issue alone will complicate both the Iraqi and Palestinian issues," he said, indicating that the US should give both issues the same priority. "There must be tangible progress on the Palestinian issue as well," he said.
Iliescu agreed with Mubarak that Sharon's policy of aggression and military action against the Palestinians will not resolve the conflict. He added that tensions in the Palestinian territories, and the escalation of threats of US strikes against Iraq "represent a grave danger for international peace and security".
Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher in Beirut on Tuesday warned Sharon against continuing his hostile policies against the Palestinians and Arabs. "Israel must halt its behaviour because it will not achieve anything," said Maher after meeting with Lebanese President Emile Lahoud. "There must be real progress, and Israel must end its aggressions." On Sharon's blaming the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat for the death of civilians, Maher said, "[Sharon] should look at what Israel is doing and consider that it is his policies which cause death on both sides." Maher called on Israel's "friends" to advise it against such policies.
Officials in Cairo met EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten earlier in the week about the immediate future of the region. Mubarak met with Patten on Monday, after conferring with his top political aides at a closed meeting that morning. Patten had told reporters on Sunday that the EU, through the international diplomatic Quartet -- which also includes the UN, US and Russia -- is working on a "road map" for the peace process, and allocating further assistance to the Palestinian people. Coming out of a meeting with Maher on Sunday, Patten said that the EU aide aimed to "support the Palestinian Authority with the remarkable programme of reform to which it has put its hand".
The EU commissioner said that if Israel had complied with UN Security Council resolutions as they were issued, "I think we might well have had peace some time ago."
With respect to Israeli compliance, Maher recently offered a suggestion that would involve the Quartet. "I believe that submitting a road map to the Quartet, and listing the parties' obligations clearly, will have the desired effect [of pressuring the Israeli government]," he said last week.
Patten said that the important thing now is to keep on trying. "I'm not ludicrously optimistic, I just think it's better to try rather than not try and that's what we're doing at this moment."

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