|
World Jewish News
Mubarak: Arabs won't recognize Israel until after peace deal
17.08.2009
Arab states will be willing to recognize and normalize ties with Israel only after a just and comprehensive Middle East peace is achieved, but not before, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said on Monday.
Mubarak, in Washington for talks with the U.S. administration, told the al-Ahram daily that the Arab experience with stalled peace talks in the wake of the 1991 Madrid peace conference "did not encourage" taking steps towards normalization with Israel.
U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell in July called on Arab states to take "meaningful steps towards normalization of relations with Israel."
"I affirmed to [U.S.] President [Barack] Obama in Cairo that the Arab initiative offers recognition of Israel and normalization with it after, and not before, achieving a just and comprehensive peace," Mubarak told al-Ahram.
"I told him that some Arab states which had mutual trade representation offices with Israel could consider reopening those offices if Israel commits to stopping settlement [building] and resumes final status negotiations with the Palestinian Authority where they left off with Olmert's government," Mubarak added.
Asked about possible Egyptian participation in an extended U.S. "defense umbrella" referred to in July by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as a response to a nuclear Iran, Mubarak said Egypt would not be part of it as it would not allow foreign troops or experts on its land.
Additionally, such an umbrella would imply a tacit recognition of a regional nuclear power, which Mubarak said Egypt was opposed to, whether it was Iran or Israel.
Mubarak also dismissed speculation that he was planning to dissolve parliament. Independent Egyptian newspapers have suggested Mubarak could dissolve the assembly to remove the more vocal opponents of his government as a first step to engineering a succession that would bring his son Gamal, 45, to power.
"I have no reasons today that would raise the necessity for dissolving parliament," Mubarak said.
A handover to Gamal, a senior official in the ruling National Democratic Party, is not a done deal and is not the only possibility, but analysts see it as a likely scenario and it is frequently mooted in the independent press.
Источник: Haaretz
|
|
