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Attempting progress

PRESIDENT Hosni Mubarak has discussed the explosive situation in the Palestinian territories, especially in the Gaza Strip, with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Speaking to Sharon by phone on Tuesday, Mubarak said, "there is no need for the ongoing violence which results in a heavy toll of lives among military personnel and innocent civilians."

During the conversation, Mubarak emphasised the necessity of putting an end to the escalating violence in order to prevent the peace process from becoming entirely unravelled. The president hoped this would pave the way for serious negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis and the implementation of the roadmap. The roadmap is to eventually lead to the creation of an independent Palestinian state co- existing peacefully alongside Israel.

Mubarak stressed that all armed conflicts ended via negotiations and peaceful solutions.

According to Jibril Rajoub, the security adviser to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, both the Palestinians and Israelis are looking for a way out of the four-year Intifada. "The Israeli party is living in a political, security, economic and social predicament. The option of military force has failed," Rajoub noted. "We [the Palestinians] are living in a predicament, a difficult situation; our people are besieged. Our economy is ruined."

Rajoub, in Cairo on Monday for talks with Mubarak's Chief Political Adviser Osama El-Baz and Chief of Intelligence Omar Suleiman, said that talks on reaching agreement on Gaza after an Israeli withdrawal are in the "final stages".

Nuclear meetings

EGYPT is planning to take part in a multilateral forum that will convene in Vienna next January to examine ways of making the Middle East a zone free of nuclear weapons.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit met with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Chief Mohamed El-Baradei on Sunday to discuss the forum. Following their talks at the foreign ministry in Cairo, Baradei told reporters that he was looking forward to active Egyptian participation in the event.

According to El-Baradei, the forum -- to be hosted by the IAEA at its headquarters in the Austrian capital -- is expected "to bring together member states of the Middle East, along with the members of the UN Security Council." El-Baradei said the meeting "should examine the complications of issues related to security and peace in the Middle East, with an eye on making this region free of nuclear weapons".

He also explained how crucial such a goal was. "It is becoming evident that accessing nuclear technology is becoming easier, and this means that the hazardous material could be obtained, and may be even used by terror groups. This could have very serious implications for the Middle East."

El-Baradei acknowledged the need for Israel to join the rest of the Middle East in pursuing this goal as well. "If the entire region does not move towards a zone free of nuclear weapons, then the nuclear armament race could go on," he said.

'No evidence'

FOREIGN Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit questioned a news story suggesting that Iraqi militants had beheaded an Iraq-based Egyptian citizen a few days ago to avenge his alleged collaboration with US forces in Iraq against the resistance movement. "There is no evidence that any Egyptian citizen was beheaded in Iraq," Abul-Gheit told reporters earlier this week.

An Iraqi militant group had claimed via its Internet website that it beheaded Mohamed Metwali, an Egyptian citizen, after kidnapping him. The reason, they said, was to avenge his spying on them on behalf of the US.

According to Abul-Gheit, the Egyptian mission in Baghdad, which closely monitors the well-being of Egyptians in Iraq, has not reported the incident. Egyptian diplomats said that with the exception of Mohamed Sanad, who has been held hostage by an Iraqi militant group for close to a month, there is no record of any other Egyptians being abducted in Iraq.

Out at last

LAST Friday, prominent Egyptian architectural consultant Mamdouh Hamza was released from the UK's Belmarsh Prison without bail. Hamza, who was arrested on 12 July and charged with four counts of soliciting murder, was initially refused bail. The terms of his current release stipulate that he will not be allowed to leave England before his trial, scheduled to begin on 1 September.

"I feel so thankful to God," his wife Omayma Hatem told Al-Ahram Weekly. His release, she said, "was a very nice surprise." The evidence against Hamza, meanwhile, is to be released to his lawyers on 18 August. "We have no other information till then -- and we do not speak about the case at all," Hatem said. She was also keen to point out that her family has "great belief in the justice of the system".

Prior to Hamza's release, the Old Bailey had received approximately 500 letters of assurance concerning Hamza from public figures in Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Algeria, Canada, Columbia, the UK and the US.

Hamza will not be speaking to the press until after his trial. (see profile p. 25)

No red carpet

VISITING US Senator Tom Lantos was received with little fanfare. Egyptian officials made no effort to impress their guest while the press was sure to slam Lantos for his congressional attempts to cut US aid to Egypt.

In his meetings with senior Egyptian officials on Monday, the California senator called for closer Egyptian-Israeli relations and pressed his interlocutors to exercise pressure on the Palestinian Authority to check what he termed "Palestinian terrorism".

The Egyptian government must do more to stop arms smuggling across the border into Palestinian Gaza, Lantos said. "I urged my interlocutors to do more and I believe Egypt has the capability of shutting down these tunnels if sufficient priority is placed on the issue," he added.

Lantos is the highest ranking Democrat on the House of Representatives International Relations Committee.