Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has asked Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to visit Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt to discuss the Middle East crisis - on the condition that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat could also be invited.
The meeting would not be to end the conflict, Mubarak said in an interview with the American CNN, "but to give the impression to both parties, to the people on both sides, to the people in the Arab world that there is a window of hope that we have to work with."
Mubarak added he hopes the meeting would allow Sharon and Arafat to discuss points and make the atmosphere between both sides better. Mubarak stated he "had a long talk with (Sharon) on the telephone. ... I told him that 'I would like to sit with you bilaterally.' I told him, 'I have no problem with you. There's no problem with Egypt and Israel. The main problem is the Palestinian problem and the one that is going on.'"
During that conversation, Mubarak said, Sharon asked him to set up a secret meeting between Sharon and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah. "I sent the message to Crown Prince Abdullah," Mubarak disclosed.
Asked about the Crown Prince's response, the Egyptian leader replied: "I just said to him that Sharon said so and so. But I don't think that Crown Prince Abdullah, the country with the Holy Places, will be able to meet with Sharon unless there's peace."
Mubarak meets with President Bush at the White House on Tuesday. Mubarak will formally make his proposal for Arafat Sharon summit when he meets with Bush.
In an interview published in Monday's edition of the Washington Times, Mubarak said terrorists are still active in Afghanistan and have sleeper cells in the United States waiting to strike out.
"You have several (terror) organizations in the United States. Now they are all sleeping, keeping very quiet as if they are very innocent, until they feel there is some freedom. Then they are going to attack," he warned.
Mubarak called for extreme vigilance and close international cooperation against terrorism.
"The Afghanistan problem did not come to an end" with the defeat of the Taliban regime in Kabul, he said.
"It needs a lot of work, a lot of cooperation. These people are very dangerous, and you have to watch them, even in the United States," the Egyptian leader said.
The Egyptian President also told the prestigious Washington Times that any US attack on Iraq that kills innocent civilians would inflame lingering anti-American sentiment among the Arab public.
Mubarak said Egypt had played an important role in the international campaign against terror since the September 11 terror attacks on the United States.
"We have given the Americans since September 11 a great deal of help, but this is not declared. Intelligence help, names, other things," he said, without elaborating.
Regarding the issue of Mideast peace, Mubarak largely pinned the blame for the current escalation of violence on Sharon.
"The period with Sharon has been the most terrible violence since the peace process started ... in 1977," he said.
"We have never seen such violence and killing and using arms. I am afraid of more escalation," he conveyed.
The current unrest, he continued, is "making Arafat have much more popularity. He is winning, and the Israelis are losing. Sharon cannot understand this," Mubarak told the daily. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
