Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has warned that the Arab summit in Cairo will only succeed if it focuses on "reasonable" measures against Israel, in an interview published Friday.
The Saturday-Sunday meeting "will succeed if it responds to reasonable demands of the Arab peoples, and not to over-excitement. It will run aground if it exceeds the normal range of interests of Arab citizens," Mubarak said.
The Egyptian leader also cautioned against what he called the abuse of Arab street protests in support of the Palestinians, saying "demonstrations can reflect anger, but must not be transformed into destruction."
"This method is mistaken: we are developing the economy of our country, we are creating employment and improving our standard of living, and we don't need demonstrations of sabotage," he said.
The truce between Israel and the Palestinians agreed at the Middle East summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Tuesday "cannot satisfy everybody, but it's what we could get from the Americans," he added.
Under the accord brokered by US President Bill Clinton, Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed to take steps to end three weeks of violence that has claimed the lives of more than 110 people, almost all of them Arab.
Mubarak said these results formed "a base that we can build on."
Thousands of Egyptians have rallied daily since the clashes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip erupted on September 28 to denounce the Israeli "massacre" of Palestinians -- CAIRO (AFP)
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