Keeping the bull far from china

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Mubarak held talks with Boutaflika and Beshir this week

IN A REGION of unabated tension, Egypt is missing no opportunity to preach wisdom to all. The objective of a series of Arab, European and US talks, including presidential visits, is to maintain the fragile state of Middle East containment.

During his consecutive talks with the outgoing and new chairs of the Arab Summit -- Algerian President Abdel-Aziz Boutaflika and Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir -- President Hosni Mubarak stressed the need for leading Arab capitals to throw their weight behind the effort to manage and maintain as many regional crises as possible in order to avoid further foreign intervention in Arab affairs.

During his talks in Algeria on Sunday and Khartoum on Tuesday, Mubarak, who did not go to last week's Arab Summit in the Sudanese capital, said Arabs need to support Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in the wake of retreating international support following the electoral success of Hamas. Arabs, he said, also need to encourage the Sudanese government to promptly reach a peace deal with rebels in war- torn Darfur. And Arabs need to keep encouraging on-going Syrian cooperation with the international investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Al-Hariri.

These issues, Mubarak urged his interlocutors, would not exclude cooperation with the international community, especially in relation to Israeli plans to unilaterally impose final borders arrangements.

Mubarak also stressed that Arabs would need to continue cooperation with influential Western capitals, especially Washington and Paris, to secure Syrian stability, which he added, requires totally avoiding international sanctions and preventing any implication of the Syrian president in Al-Hariri's assassination.

Egyptian diplomats say that during recent talks with visiting diplomatic and parliamentary European delegations and dignitaries, including Greek President Tassos Papadopulos, Cairo issued its constant appeal to spare the Middle East from further political and military chaos. "We are not tired of saying it: we do not need another Iraq. We say it at every level and at the highest level," commented an Egyptian diplomat who took part in several talks.

Egyptian warnings are not only made against the forced presence of international forces in Darfur, or military or economic action against Syria. Cairo is also appealing to refrain from "unwise action against Iran".

"We tell everybody we meet that any military action or economic sanctions against Iran would set the entire Middle East on fire. This would not only harm the interests of the countries of this region, without exception, but would certainly harm international interests in the region as well," a senior Egyptian diplomat said. He added that the fact that this advise is coming from Cairo, which has had no diplomatic ties with Tehran for close to three decades, was a good indication that what is being preached by Egyptian diplomacy is clearly in the interests of the region.

Later this month, during talks to be hosted by Cairo between President Mubarak and French President Jacques Chirac and subsequent Arab- European foreign minister talks, Egypt is planning to further stress its message. "We talk to the Americans and we do hope that the Europeans will also talk to them," commented one official. He added that while trying hard to keep the bull out of the china shop, Egypt is not excluding nightmarish scenarios.