Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher Monday urged Israel to follow the Palestinian lead in accepting the US-backed "roadmap" for Middle East peace, while a government newspaper warned that Arabs had lost confidence in US diplomacy.
"The Palestinian Authority has accepted the 'roadmap' in all its details and without reservations and it is now up to the Israeli side to do the same," Maher told the state-run Middle East News Agency (MENA) on Monday.
Maher said Egyptian officials "expect to be briefed by US Secretary of State Colin Powell," who held talks with President Hosni Mubarak, "about the results of his talks in Israel and with the Palestinians."
Maher urged "Israel to stop its provocative daily actions which victimize the Palestinians, in order to be able to start the application of the roadmap which opens the way to a comprehensive and permanent peace in the region."
The Egyptian minister linked "the Palestinians' respect for a ceasefire and a halt to suicide attacks to Israel's stopping provocative daily actions against the Palestinian people."
Meanwhile, Galal Duweidar, editor in chief of the Egyptian government newspaper Al-Akhbar, wrote a column Monday entitled "Powell's Visit and Lost Trust."
"It is not important that the United States has presented a peace plan. What is important is that they be serious in forcing Israel to accept the commitments of a just and comprehensive peace," Duweidar wrote.
"From our bitter experience of decades past, the Arabs no longer have any confidence in the role that the United States can play to achieve a fair settlement," he said.
"Their bias and endless plots on Israel's behalf against the Arabs raise suspicions about their expressed determination to promote peace.
"I hope that Powell's visit to the region will not be like the previous ones, which all ended with still more encouragement for Israeli aggression," he said.
"It's unbelievable that the US administration has yielded to Sharon's pressure and that Powell did not meet the elected President Yasser Arafat, even though the United States knows the Palestinian people only accept him as leader." (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
