Helping hand
DURING his talks in Paris yesterday with French President Jacques Chirac and during talks he held on Tuesday in Jeddah with Saudi King Abdullah, President Hosni Mubarak sought a way out for the Syrian regime after press statements made over the weekend by former Syrian Vice-President Abdul-Halim Khaddam implicated Damascus in the killing of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Al-Hariri.
Mubarak's talks in Saudi Arabia and France came after the UN, in charge with inspecting the killing of Al-Hariri in the heart of the Lebanese capital close to a year ago, requested to meet Bashar Al-Assad and his Foreign Minister Farouk Al-Sharaa to discuss Khaddam's claims made to the Saudi-owned news channel Al-Arabiya.
For the past few months Mubarak has been exerting maximum political effort to spare Syria the consequences of any potential indictment of wrong-doing in the killing of Al-Hariri or for that matter any of the other Lebanese figures, opposed to Syria's presence in Lebanon, who were assassinated in 2005. Mubarak has also been trying hard to contain growing Syrian- Lebanese tension and to encourage both capitals to accommodate the concerns and demands of the other.
Diplomatic sources say that this long-term mission is ongoing. This week, they add, Mubarak was on an urgent mission to prevent the possible collapse of the Syrian government if the UN inspection team was to find Al-Assad guilty of the charges levelled by his former vice-president.
Egypt, diplomats insist, is not in the business of hiding the truth or covering up for wrong-doers. But they add, Egypt is concerned about Syria's stability and is trying to consolidate it even in moments of disagreement with the Syrian regime over its approach to crisis-management.
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online : Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/776/eg2.htm