Between friends

President Mubarak's visit to the United States renewed the strategic ties between the two countries, Khaled Dawoud reports from Washington

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Due to the critical situation in occupied Palestinian territories and Iraq, Egyptian and US officials agreed that the summit meeting held on Monday between President Hosni Mubarak and US President George W Bush was among the most significant in recent years. Mubarak, Egyptian officials said, frankly expressed Cairo's views on these issues and offered help that reflected the close ties between the two countries, and the fact that regional stability served the interests of both nations.

In statements to Egyptian reporters on Tuesday, President Mubarak said his meeting with Bush at his private ranch in Crawford, Texas was a "very good one". In return, Bush said Egypt was "a strategic partner of the United States and we value President Mubarak's years of effort on behalf of peace and stability in the Middle East".

With Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's proposal to withdraw from the occupied Gaza Strip being the only card in play at this stage, Mubarak said he told the US president that any effort to revive peace talks on the Palestinian track should be based on the principle that the borders of any future Palestinian state must be those of June1967, and that the withdrawal from Gaza should not be the last step but a first one.

He also referred to the thorny issue of the fate of the Palestinian refugees, forced to leave their villages and cities following Israel's creation in 1948, saying that this issue should be left to final status talks between Israel and the Palestinians, and not determined ahead of such negotiations. Mubarak was clearly alluding to recent reports that the Israeli premier, who met with Bush yesterday at the White House, was seeking assurances that the United States would not pressure Israel to withdraw to the June '67 border and accept the return of Palestinian refugees to their homeland, ahead of carrying out any anticipated withdrawal from Gaza.

"It is imperative that we reaffirm that the solution to the conflict must come through negotiation, not through the use of force," Mubarak told a group of prominent US businessmen on Tuesday. "Equally important is the need not to prejudge the sensitive issues that must be left to the parties themselves to negotiate. Neither party can be allowed to take measures that undermine the basis for a just and comprehensive peace. All countries playing an active role in the process must also take care not to adopt positions that might compromise prospects for a negotiated settlement. We must broker a solution, but we must not, by doing so, impose one," he added.

US officials, including President Bush, did not declare a final position on reported Israeli demands, but they agreed with the Egyptian view that any proposal to withdraw from Gaza should be part of the roadmap which the US president announced last year, backed by the European Union, the United Nations and Russia.

The roadmap calls for the creation of an independent Palestinian state by 2005 through negotiations between the two sides, a deadline that is clearly impractical in light of the recent Israeli proposal. Sharon, Egyptian and US officials fear, wants to replace the roadmap with his so-called "unilateral disengagement plan", and impose an interim solution that would allow him to capture most of the occupied West Bank.

While Israeli press reports claim that Bush was close to accepting Israeli proposals, particularly in an election year in which he cannot afford a clash with the powerful Israeli lobby in the United States, US officials remained tightlipped. They said the US would make its position known following the intensive talks Bush has been holding with leaders in the region, including President Mubarak, Sharon, Jordan's King Abdullah, scheduled to meet the US president next week, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whom he will meet tomorrow.

Mubarak, meanwhile, renewed his offer to help the Palestinian Authority rebuild their security bodies, destroyed by Israel since Sharon took office, and to host further talks among Palestinian factions in Cairo in order to agree on a common strategy on negotiations with Israel. In his news conference with Mubarak, Bush reiterated his stand that "terror" must be stopped first in order to allow for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

On Iraq, Mubarak offered the US side equally frank advice. "With regards to Iraq, we must all work towards a better future for its citizens. But ultimately any improvement in the daily lives of ordinary Iraqis will have to come from their own institutions. All our efforts, therefore, must be devoted to rebuilding Iraq's institutions, in the areas of government, the economy and civil society," he said in his speech to American businessmen.

He added in his brief remarks to Egyptian reporters that he also advised US officials to pull out their troops from populated cities and allow Iraqi forces to take over the responsibility of providing security. "As long as we have American forces [in populated Iraqi cities] we are going to have problems, and even Iraqi forces will not be able to carry out their work," he said. "Therefore, we expressed readiness to train Iraqi police, and let them bring the largest number so that they can catch up with the 30 June deadline," -- the date set by President Bush to hand over sovereignty to the Iraqis.

In a news conference late Tuesday, Bush said he remained committed to that deadline despite the fact that many details concerning the transfer of sovereignty, and in particular the structure of the Iraqi government that would take over power, remain unknown. Echoing Mubarak's views, Bush said he agreed that the United Nations should assume a larger role in determining the future of Iraq, and that he backed the effort of UN envoy to Iraq, Lakhdar Labrahimi, to work out a plan with the Iraqis on the transfer of power. He also announced that he would seek yet another Security Council resolution that would offer the backing of the international community to such plan.

Egyptian officials who attended the talks between Mubarak and Bush said they were also encouraged by the evident change in the US position concerning their latest initiative seeking political and economic reforms in the region, known as the Greater Middle East Initiative (GMEI). The US, Egyptian officials said, now recognise that any plans for reforms in the region should be carried out in coordination with concerned countries and not imposed by the world's sole superpower.

In their joint news conference on Monday, Bush praised the recent conference on reform in the Arab world held in Alexandria in March, providing what observers saw as a domestic blueprint for reform. In his statements to reporters, Mubarak said the recommendations issued at the end of the conference, known as the Alexandria Declaration, "are not obligatory. They were discussions aimed at laying out proposals for reform that should be discussed in each Arab country, and implemented according to their circumstances, their traditions, environment and culture."