Lost opportunities
Cairo forges on with its efforts to resolve the region's crises, reports Gamal Essam El-Din
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President Mubarak told the media he will send an envoy to Israel in the next 10 days
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During a visit to the industrial city of Borg Al-Arab (60 kilometres southwest of Alexandria), President Hosni Mubarak said that settling the Palestinian issue, "which has remained unsolved from 1948, is very essential for securing stability in the region. I call it the issue of lost opportunities."
In Mubarak's view, one of those opportunities was quite recently lost. "The Palestinian side stopped launching (violent) acts for almost 50 days, but unfortunately the Israeli side kept up its violent strikes against the Palestinians," Mubarak said. This was despite the fact that the only way US President George Bush's roadmap plan could be implemented was if measures are embraced in parallel by both sides.
Despite the setbacks posed by a suicide bombing that rocked Tel Aviv on 25 December and a subsequent Israeli military campaign in the West Bank city of Nablus, Cairo said it was determined to step up its efforts to secure a peace.
Mubarak dispatched his senior political adviser, Osama El-Baz, to meet Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on the first day of the New Year. El-Baz told Arafat that Egypt was aiming to secure a fresh cease-fire from the Palestinian factions, and wanted to see all of these factions unite behind the Palestinian leadership and support Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei when negotiations with the Israelis resume.
It has also been reported that Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher will visit Ramallah to meet Arafat and deliver a speech before the Palestinian National Council (PNC) next week. At the moment, however, it is Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman who is playing the largest role in trying to secure a fresh truce. Suleiman was scheduled to visit Ramallah on Tuesday to meet Arafat and invite the factions to a new round of talks in Cairo. Suleiman was in Washington last month to brief the United States regarding Egypt's efforts towards implementing Bush's roadmap peace plan.
Hopes are being placed on the next round of cease-fire talks since Maher said that during his recent meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Sharon told him he would respond positively to a Palestinian offer. On 31 December, Maher said the recent Israeli military campaign actually "contradicts [the conclusions reached during] my talks with Israeli officials". He said, "Israel must recognise that its aggressive practices failed in the past and will not succeed in the future. Pursuing [them] is unethical and a violation of international laws."
On 3 January, meanwhile, Mubarak met with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was vacationing in Sharm El-Sheikh at the time. The meeting focussed on the regional situation, with emphases on Palestine, Syria and Iraq. Blair has been urging Bush to dedicate more of his attention to achieving peace in the Middle East as an indispensable step towards eradicating terrorism in the region.
In this respect, Britain has itself tried to host talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis. The talks failed, and even caused palpable tension between Blair and Sharon. British ambassador in Cairo Derek Plumbly said the Blair-Mubarak talks also included ideas aimed at encouraging the international "quartet" to play a more active role in reaching a settlement in the Middle East.
Informed sources told Al-Ahram Weekly that the meeting also tackled the current tension between Syria and the United States. Sources said President Mubarak, aware of Britain's positive attitude towards Syria, told Blair that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad's recent initiative towards resuming negotiations with the Israelis had to be taken more seriously by the US.
Mubarak also telephoned Al-Assad on Sunday to discuss both his meeting with Blair as well as Egypt's efforts to bring the Israelis and the Palestinians to the table.
Israel's reaction to Cairo's efforts, however, seemed lukewarm. Not only did Sharon refuse to resume negotiations with the Syrians, he also announced his plans to expand Jewish settlements on the occupied Golan Heights as well. Maher said Sharon's unilateral steps would generate more violence and terrorism in the region. "Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would have no need to take unilateral action if he were serious about implementing the US- inspired roadmap peace plan," Maher said.
On Tuesday, Mubarak said Israel's announcement that it would build more settlements on the Golan Heights was just "propaganda". Mubarak argued that President Bashar is aiming to start negotiations with Israel "because he wants to introduce reform in Syria and he has a future outlook for his country. I think the Israeli prime minister must seize the opportunity and reciprocate positively," Mubarak said.
