Mubarak's Authority to Make Arms Deals ExtendedEgyptian People's Assembly (parliament) Monday renewed President Hosni Mubarak's power to conclude deals on arms purchase and sales and military production.The renewal of the 27-year-old power was supported overwhelmingly in the parliament as Egyptian lawmakers considered it necessary to counter increasing Israeli military threats. The move would be helpful to protect national security in light of regional tensions, Egyptian lawmakers said. The power, renewable every three years, was first given to late President Anwar Sadat in 1974 to make decisions regarding arms purchases and sales without referring them to the parliament. Egypt, the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, has been playing a key mediating role in resolving the more than half-century Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Cairo recalled its ambassador to Israel last November in protest of Israel's excessive use of force against unarmed Palestinians. More than 430 people, most of them Palestinians, have been killed and thousands more injured during the six-month-old bloody clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian protesters, triggered by Israeli violation of an Islamic holy shrine in East Jerusalem last September. |
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