 |
Mubarak Criticizes Sharon for Stalled Mideast Peace
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Wednesday criticized Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for the stalled Mideast peace process, saying that the region can not have peace as long as Sharon stays in power.
"Frankly speaking, there is no resolution (to the Middle East conflict) with Sharon (in power), Mubarak said in an exclusive interview with Tian Congming, president of China's state-run Xinhua News Agency who arrived here Monday for a four-day visit.
Mubarak showed his deep disappointment with Sharon, saying the Israeli hawk is a man who "only understands force and war" and talking peace with such people will be "fruitless".
He said the Sharon government includes extremists. For example, he said, one of the Israeli ministers threatened after assuming office that Israeli would re-occupy Egypt's Sinai peninsular and bomb the Aswan high dam.
"Is this indicating that they want peace?" he asked.
He warned that if a war breaks out, the consequences would be grave for everybody, including Israel, and the peoples in the region would suffer.
"The Jews in the past honored their commitments, but things are totally different now ... they don't implement reached agreements and refuse to keep their promises," he noted.
The Egyptian leader said Israel should change its stance on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and recognize that Arafat had managed to control the situation in the Palestinian territories to pave the way for implementing the recommendations of the Mitchell report.
Arafat had made great efforts to reduce the level of violence, Mubarak said, adding that Arafat himself cannot have 100 percent control on violence because there are areas that are not under the full Palestinian control such as area B and area C.
On ways to help the Palestinians and Israel end the more than nine months of clashes, Mubarak pointed out that it was sharon's visit to al-Aqsa mosque on September 28 that caused the Palestinian intifada, or uprising against Israel as an expression of Palestinians rejection of violating Islamic sanctities.
"We have to look for a starting point and suggested that the beginning should be the end of violence from the two sides, followed by the withdrawal of the Israeli forces to their positions before last September 28," Mubarak said.
"Without this, we will find ourselves in a vicious circle which can not be broken and will only lead to escalation of violence that may further deteriorate the situation in the region," Mubarak said.
He criticized Israel for refusing the deployment of an international observer force in the Palestinian territories. "This can not be accepted by the Arabs," he noted.
Mubarak blamed Israel for the failure of peace efforts for three reasons: the Israeli policy of closure and siege which deepened frustration and led to acts of terrorism; Israel's refusal to resume peace talks and implement reached agreements; and Israel's insistence on political talks after a cessation of violence.
He said that in a bid to get out of this dilemma, he had met US Secretary of State Colin Powell, Russian Mideast peace envoy Andrei Vdovin, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, and Palestinian leader Arafat. "We are trying our best to break the vicious circle and put the peace process back on track," he added.
"Of course, we count on the friendly Chinese attitude not only towards the Arab countries but also towards the just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East," the Egyptian leader said.
In This Section
|