Egypt asked Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman to postpone his planned Cairo visit next week after he reportedly compared Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
Amid Arab outrage over the comments reported in an Israeli daily, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said that "because of our commitments, we have asked the Czech Prime Minister to postpone his visit to Egypt." The visit had been scheduled for February 28.
Maher did not elaborate but a foreign ministry official said the delay had been requested in protest at the remarks attributed to Zeman. Egypt's request was made before Zeman denied these remarks in Prague.
Denial
Meanwhile, Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman denied he had drawn a comparison between Arafat and Hitler.
Zeman was quoted by agencies as saying he was "surprised" to read about the alleged comparison, which he said was based on a misquoted statement he made over the weekend while visiting Israel on a diplomatic and trade junket.
"I would like to stress that I never compared Arafat with Hitler," Zeman said in a statement released by his spokesman, Libor Roucek.
The original report, based on an interview with Zeman and printed in Monday's edition of Haaretz, triggered a diplomatic backlash as top officials from the European Union, Germany, Austria and Spain demanded an explanation from the Czech leader.
Czech President Vaclav Havel said Tuesday he was "deeply disturbed" by the alleged remarks, which he said could "only further increase tensions" between Israel and the Palestinians.
The newspaper report had raised doubts about Wednesday's scheduled meeting in Prague between Zeman and German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. But Fischer's office says the visit has not been canceled. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
