Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said he has rejected a proposal from US lawmakers to make a dramatic peace trip to Jerusalem, in an interview with a Kuwaiti daily published Monday.
"I reject a visit without any objective, result, vision or final settlement guaranteeing the rights" of the Palestinians, he told As-Siyassa in the interview.
In the current absence of a path to peace, Mubarak said he turned down the proposal from members of Congress whom he met during a visit to the United States in June. "Members of Congress tried to lure me with a Nobel prize if I agreed to their wish for me to visit Jerusalem to achieve a breakthrough in the crisis," he said.
Turning to US President George W. Bush's calls for Yasser Arafat to be replaced, Mubarak said he warned officials in Washington during his visit last month against sidelining the veteran Palestinian leader. "I stressed the seriousness of touching Arafat or trying to sideline him, as well as the importance of benefiting from his long experience in future negotiations," the Egyptian leader said.
"To drop Arafat would be a serious mistake which we would all regret. The man has experience and unifies around him the Palestinians inside and outside" the West Bank and Gaza Strip, he warned.
Mubarak said that he opposes any US military strike on Iraq because the region does not need further tension and the main concern is the well-being of the people of Iraq.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg told reporters that Israel welcomed Egypt's role to help end the Mideast violence. He made these comments in Cairo after talks with Mubarak's political adviser, Osama el-Baz
"Egypt is the single most important player in the peace process in the Middle East," said Burg, who added that his visit to Egypt was not to negotiate on behalf of the Israeli government but "to represent the voice ... of the majority of Israelis" who want peace.
"With the presidential involvement of President Mubarak and his people I believe we have a chance to see a new horizon and a new future for the resumption of peace talks and the reduction of hostility, animosity and violence," Burg told reporters.
El-Baz said Burg was among "the people who believe in peace, who are against oppression of any other people (and) against territorial expansion." (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
