Rooting for peace
Any effort to move peace forward in the region is welcome by Egypt, reports Nevine Khalil
As delegates headed to Switzerland on Monday to attended the launching of the unofficial peace plan dubbed the "Geneva initiative", President Hosni Mubarak reaffirmed Egypt's support for any initiative to achieve Middle East peace. "We have also agreed on the roadmap, and on several initiatives to allow peace to prevail in this part of the world," Mubarak told reporters at a joint news conference with his Maltese counterpart Guido de Marco. During their talks, both leaders agreed that a greater UN role is needed to help Iraq regain its sovereignty and recover from war.
Meanwhile, Mubarak's chief political adviser Osama El-Baz travelled to Geneva to represent Egypt at the launching of the unofficial peace plan. Some 400 prominent international figures, including former US President Jimmy Carter, attended the Geneva ceremony, which Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has categorically rejected and many Palestinians demonstrated against.
The 50-page Geneva initiative, signed by former Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin and former Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, proposes concrete solutions to the thorniest issues of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and prepares the groundwork for major concessions on both sides. The proposal calls for Israel to evacuate almost all of the West Bank and share sovereignty in Jerusalem, while the Palestinians are required to renounce the right of return of 3.8 million refugees.
Israel has sharply criticised the effort as bypassing the Israeli government and reiterated that the Geneva initiative will harm the US-backed "roadmap" proposal. The Geneva initiative has no official international backing, but has drawn European support, as well as encouragement, from US Secretary of State Colin Powell. In fact, the US State Department said Powell did not rule out meeting in Washington with Israelis and Palestinians who drafted the Geneva initiative.
Last June, while visiting Egypt and then Jordan, US President George W Bush launched the roadmap initiative which calls for the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005. The plan stalled amid recurring violence, Israel's construction of a "security" wall, settlement expansion and the collapse of the Palestinian government under the leadership of Mahmoud Abbas.
"We're trying hard with Palestinians as well as with the Israelis to find a way out of this problem; with continued killing, destruction and building more settlements [by the Israelis], we'll have the other side continuing suicide bombs," said Mubarak on Monday. He added that "nobody will guarantee" a ceasefire if the Israelis fail to match Palestinian efforts.
This was the same message Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher conveyed to his Israeli counterpart Silvan Shalom during a telephone conversation on 26 November. Maher told Shalom that the Palestinians "have shown readiness to make progress and that the Israeli government should reciprocate". He added that Israel should "end measures which obstruct the achievement of real progress towards peace".
Maher reiterated this point to reporters on Saturday, saying that if the Palestinians agree to a ceasefire during their talks in Cairo this week, Israel will have to match their commitment. "There won't be a truce for free; everything has a price," Maher said. "If the Palestinians factions accept a truce, Israel must act encouragingly."
Talks between armed Palestinian factions such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah -- mediated by Egypt's Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman -- were postponed from Tuesday until later in the week when Israel blocked the passage of several Palestinian representatives travelling to Egypt. Suleiman was scheduled to travel to Washington on 9 December to seek US guarantees that Israel would respect a ceasefire. A previous unilateral truce declared by Palestinians in June collapsed after less than two months, when Israel continued its policy of target assassinations against faction members and raided Palestinian territories.
In Beirut on Monday, Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said, "any truce would include the roadmap, a halt to settlements, fences, occupation and siege." Maher denied that Cairo was pressuring the Palestinians to declare a ceasefire, saying: "Egypt doesn't take a decision on behalf of anybody. The final decision is for the Palestinians and the Israelis." He added that Washington's decision to deduct almost $300 million from loan guarantees proves that Israel's staunchest ally is tiring of the Sharon administration, and he urged Palestinians to take advantage of the opportunity.
During Monday's news conference, Mubarak and Malta's de Marco urged a just solution be reached to the conflict, stressing it was the key to broader harmony. "There will be no stability in Europe without achieving stability in the Mediterranean area and cooperation among its countries," said de Marco.
Mubarak noted that Egypt, "would like to work hard with the help of the US to put an end to this problem and bring them to the negotiating table". This was a main item of discussion when Mubarak met with US Assistant Secretary of State William Burns on Tuesday while the US envoy was on a tour of the region. Their discussions revolved around efforts to implement the roadmap. After a three-month absence from the region, Burns arrived in Jordan on Saturday for a regional visit, which also took him to Israel on Sunday and Tunisia on Tuesday.
Burns briefed Mubarak on his talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei and Israeli officials, and while in Cairo met with Arab League Secretary- General Amr Moussa and Prime Minister Atef Ebeid. Burns' arrival in Cairo coincided with the Geneva ceremony, which he welcomed -- along with other unofficial peace efforts -- as "positive contributions to the debate about what final status options might look like".
Earlier on Monday, while in Jerusalem, Burns had met with Palestinian academic Sari Nusseibeh, who is promoting another unofficial plan -- the "Voice of the People" -- with Ami Ayalon, a former chief of Israel's Shin Bet security service. "We believe these [initiatives] are important reminders that Palestinians and Israelis can talk to one another and that there is something to talk about," stated Burns. He added, however, that "The United States does not endorse any of these particular unofficial initiatives. Most of all, they are a reminder of the importance of getting started."
