Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Wednesday called on Palestinian and Israeli sides to take practical steps to demonstrate their seriousness in the quest to reach a peace agreement. The Egyptian leader suggested the deploying of an international peacekeeping force in the West Bank for a limited time period ato be greed upon between the parties in order to rebuild trust and a sense of security.
In an article published by The New York Times on Wednesday, Mubarak wrote: "Ten years have passed since the last time the Palestinians and Israelis got neared to acieve a lasting peace agreement in Taba in January 2001." He also noted that during his career in the Egyptian Air Force, he had experienced the tragic consequences of the war between Israel and the Arabs. As the president of Egypt he has seen a lot of success and failure in the peace process.
Mubarak mentioned that Egypt was the first Arab country to make peace with Israel. According to him, this was decided by the late President Anwar Sadat and that since he has witnessed his assassination in 1981 at the hands of extremists, he has been trying to make the dream of lasting peace in the Middle East into a reality.
He added that after nearly two years from the cessation of direct negotiations, "We now open a new chapter in this long history."
