Uphill mission
With tension on the rise in Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Sudan, Egypt continues to engage in damage control. Reem Nafie reports
Against a backdrop of ever-increasing regional tension, Cairo spent the week trying to contain various political crises. Whether in Syria, where the investigation into the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Al-Hariri was heading into its final stages, potentially implicating both Lebanese and Syrian officials, or in the occupied Palestinian territories, where violence on the ground could increase with the upcoming legislative elections, there seemed no end to the issues that needed dealing with. Cairo was also worried about the lack of serious progress in settling the ongoing crisis in Darfur.
This week, President Hosni Mubarak met with two Arab leaders -- Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas -- to discuss these and other regional concerns.
On Monday, Mubarak and Abbas -- who was passing through Egypt on his way to France, Spain and ultimately the United States -- discussed the latest developments in the occupied Palestinian territories in light of the recent attempts to secure a continued commitment by all Palestinian factions to a truce that was brokered by Cairo earlier in the year.
Cairo is also currently preparing to host another round of talks between the Palestinian Authority and the various Palestinian militant resistance factions, especially Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The Mubarak-Abbas talks also took place in the midst of a wide-ranging debate about the wisdom of conducting Palestinian legislative elections by the end of the year, even though it seems clear that a likely Hamas victory might not be well received in Washington, which fears that it would undermine the prospects of the fragile truce.
Egypt is placing hope in Abbas's meeting with US President George W Bush -- scheduled for today -- "providing a new avenue for reviving the peace process," according to presidential spokesman Suleiman Awad. Cairo has been encouraging Washington to receive Abbas with an open mind, arguing that if the Palestinian leader manages to establish peace and stability in Gaza following the Israeli withdrawal, he has to be granted prompt and effective international support. In tangible terms, that means a marked increase in developmental projects in Gaza that would make life easier for the Palestinian people.
Egyptian diplomats in Washington have been telling the US administration and members of Congress that Abbas will not be able to persuade his people to stick to the truce and exercise self- restraint -- in reaction to Israeli provocation -- if he is only telling them that they need to put down their weapons. "These people have to be given something to convince them of the value of putting down arms," one Egyptian official commented.
Recent disturbances in the peace process have included an Israeli Foreign Ministry announcement on Monday that Israel was suspending security contacts with the Palestinian Authority after Palestinian gunmen killed three Jewish settlers and injured five in a West Bank drive-by shooting. Egypt called on Israel to continue to provide Palestine with the necessary support. Saying that disagreements are something "we hear from time to time," Awad scoffed at the notion that the Israeli-Palestinian dialogue had come to a halt. "The only way to remove the pending problems and push the peace process forward," he said, was for "the two sides to quickly go back to talking".
Egypt has been helping the Palestinian Authority assert its command over Gaza in the weeks following Israel's withdrawal. Cairo also expects Israel to fulfill the commitments that were agreed upon during an 8 February summit meeting in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh; these include the measures Israel was supposed to take to make Palestinian lives easier, especially in terms of the movement of people and goods. Cairo is also hoping that Israel will make good on releasing more Palestinian prisoners, giving the Palestinians security control of three West Bank towns, and granting Palestinians employment opportunities in Israel.
Both the Palestinians and their leadership, Awad said on Monday, also "need as much support as they can get from regional and international partners, including Israel. President Mubarak [constantly] emphasises that in his contacts with the Israelis, Europeans, and the US."
A day earlier, Mubarak and Gaddafi held a mini-summit in Libya covering both bilateral relations and general Arab issues. The unannounced meeting lasted for a few hours, during which the two leaders concentrated on the latest developments in Palestine, Lebanon and Syria. They also discussed the situation in Africa, especially the Darfur crisis in Sudan.
According to statements made this week by Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit, Egypt has been encouraging all regional players to work towards bringing peace and stability to all of Sudan, including Darfur.
The Mubarak-Gaddafi talks came hours after British-based news reports suggested that the Libyan leader was involved in brokering a deal between Syria and the US, via which Damascus could be exempted from being seriously implicated by the international investigation into Hariri's murder, in return for a strong commitment to refrain from interference in Lebanon, suspend all support to Hamas and Hizbullah, and impose stricter restrictions on its borders with Iraq. While Abul-Gheit discounted those reports, the top Egyptian diplomat stressed that Cairo was working with all concerned parties to "prevent the region from undergoing added tension".
As part of these efforts, Abul-Gheit said that Egyptian diplomacy was doing its best to prevent Syria from being backed into a corner. "We cannot predict the results and findings of the international investigation, but we can work -- and have been working -- to reduce the level of tension." Neither Abul-Gheit, any of his aides, or for that matter the president's aides, are claiming that these Egyptian efforts have succeeded. If anything, they willingly admit that it is an uphill mission that may have just begun.
Caption: Mubarak and Abbas discussed the latest developments on the Palestinian front
C a p t i o n 2: Mubarak and Abbas discussed the latest developments on the Palestinian front
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/765/eg1.htm