Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Monday became the first Arab leader to meet President George W. Bush, bringing the message that the US leader must take a more active role in efforts to forge Middle East peace. Meanwhile, Israel escalated its attacks on the Palestinians carrying out its plan of assassinating Intifada activists.
While bilateral relations and other regional questions -- policy towards Iraq, Sudan and Libya -- were also expected to be on the agenda of the White House meeting, Mubarak publicly upbraided Bush in an interview for his approach thus far to ending regional violence, according to AFP.
"The United States cannot just take its hands off. It has to work to narrow the gap (between the Palestinians) and the Israelis," Mubarak stressed in a lengthy interview with Newsweek magazine released Saturday.
"The new administration may not have a picture of what's going on," Mubarak told Newsweek. "I'm going to tell them what I feel."
AFP reported that President W. Bush said that US Secretary of State Colin Powell discussed the situation in the Middle East by telephone early Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
"We're very engaged in the Middle East and will remain so," Bush said after a White House meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who has publicly chided the new US administration over a perceived hands-off approach to regional peace.
"As a matter of fact, the secretary of state has been involved on the telephone this morning with Prime Minister Sharon," Bush told reporters at a joint appearance, declining to give further details.
The US leader said last week he would urge Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah II to call on Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to halt violence in the region, which Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says is a precondition for new talks.
But the monarch -- set to meet Bush here April 10 -- signaled as he left Jordan for the United States Monday that he would likely bring same message Mubarak did.
Israeli radio reported Sunday that Sharon has rejected a proposal put forward by Egypt and Jordan aimed at halting the deadly tide of Israeli-Palestinian violence and resuming peace talks.
In a related report, the agency said that Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres reaffirmed in Stockholm Monday that Palestinians have a right to their own state despite the current conflict with Israel, but said the timing of its creation would be determined by Palestinian actions.
Asked by AFP if he still believed that Palestinians had a right to their own state, Peres answered: "Yes."
As for the timing of its creation however, "that depends upon them," the Israeli minister told reporters following talks here with Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, whose country currently holds the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union.
In the Palestinian land, Israel admitted that the Islamic Jihad activist who was killed by an army helicopter rocket in Rafah was a target for his alleged involvement in anti-Israeli attacks.
A burnt out wreck was all that remained of the Peugeot pick-up belonging to Mohammed Abdel Al instantly.
"He was completely burnt to a crisp," said Abed Zanoun, still trembling after seeing the gunships fire three times as he was coming home from the mosque. "His hands were still on the wheel."
The blackened remains of the 26-year-old father-of-three stayed in the car for some 15 minutes before being removed, swathed in a blanket, to a nearby hospital before they were restored to his family for almost immediate burial, said AFP.
Later in the day, A car bomb exploded near a group of soldiers near the settlement of Kedumin in the northern West Bank, the Council of Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip told the agency, adding that none was injured.
For its part, the Islamic Jihad group vowed revenge for the assassination of one of its members by Israeli helicopter fire in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, reported AFP.
We will take revenge for the assassination of one of our military activists," the Islamic Jihad in Palestine official told AFP in Gaza City.
"The movement's response will be appropriate and strong as you have become accustomed," an official said in a statement, quoted by the agency.
The Israeli army has stepped up its actions in the Palestinian territories in the last few days, including the kidnapping of six members of the Palestinian presidential guards unit, Force 17.
Israel has threatened to continue with its campaign aimed at liquidating Intifada activists. There have been reports of Israeli plans to assassinate top aides of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
The last Palestinian assassinated by the Israeli army was Masoud Ayad, a member of Force 17 whom the Israeli army said was working with the Lebanese Hizbollah movement.
Meanwhile, The Jerusalem Post newspaper reported that Israeli troops arrested earlier Monday a Palestinian man from the Salem village near the West Bank city of Nablus for involvement in killing an Israeli soldier overnight by armed Palestinians.
Citing Israel Radio, the paper said that Mohammed Nasser resided in a house close to the scene of the gunfight where 23-year-old Ya'akov Krenchel was killed in an exchange of fire.
Within the same context, the Palestinian group, Return Brigades, claimed responsibility for killing Krenchel, said reports.
In a statement released by the group, it said the action was in revenge for the death of five Palestinian youths killed in clashes with the Israeli army on Land Day last Friday, said Haaretz.
Also on Monday, a female Israeli soldier was lightly injured in Jerusalem when a Palestinian man hit her over the head with an iron bar, and snatched her M16 semi-automatic rifle on Pierre Kennig Street, in a residential area of Jerusalem, said the Israeli paper.
The Israeli army said there had been six other exchanges of fire late Sunday, with no injuries reported.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority issued a warning to Israel Sunday night that it has "crossed a red line" by entering Area A (under Palestinian control), and kidnapping six Palestinians.
Israeli security sources said the Palestinians may respond to the kidnapping by attempting to kidnap Israeli soldiers, said Haaretz.
The head of the PA's preventative security apparatus in the West Bank, Jibril Rjoub, was quoted as saying Sunday that the kidnapping was a "clear violation of the Oslo Accords. The Israelis have crossed a red line."
But Israel's Chief of Staff, Shaul Mofaz, told Channel Two that "the Palestinians are the ones who have crossed the red lines," adding that, "the IDF will act wherever it is needed to harm the terrorists," according to the paper.
In addition to increased attempts to kidnap soldiers, Israeli sources told Haaretz that the Palestinians may also respond to the kidnapping by holding onto Israelis who enter areas under PA control, such as the teenage boy and girl who were found in Ramallah on Friday and returned unharmed to Israel -- Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
