Dina Ezzat examines what Mubarak had to say in a crucial visit to the US on domestic and regional affairs This week President Hosni Mubarak was in the US for the first time in five years. Ahead of the Tuesday summit with US President Barack Obama, who is credited by Egyptian officials for reviving the "strategic alliance between Egypt and the US", the president made it clear that he wants Obama's support on Middle East peace and non-interference on the succession of rule and democracy. In an exclusive interview accorded to TV correspondent Charlie Rose, President Mubarak said he never discussed the issue of succession with his son Gamal Mubarak. And in another exclusive interview given to the daily Al-Ahram in Washington, Mubarak said that Middle East peace is a pressing priority for Cairo and Washington alike. "You would like for your son Gamal to come after you," Rose, of the US Public Broadcasting Service, put it flatly to Mubarak, according to a verbatim translated transcript released by Charlie Rose on the Internet. Mubarak was not short on a flat reply himself. "[The issue] was never raised between my son and myself." He added, "it is not on my mind to have my son inherit me. The choice and election of the president is open to the population in its entirety. It is the decision of the population to elect who would represent the people. It is not for me to decide. It is the decision of the people to elect the person who they trust. Who would that person be? Well, we have a long time." In reference to the next presidential election scheduled for 2011, he added, "It's... we still have two years to go." In the ping-pong with Rose, Mubarak declined to directly rule out the chances for Gamal to become the next president of Egypt. "Do you think he is ready to be president?" asked Rose. "I will ask him. Or you can ask him. Don't ask me," Mubarak replied abruptly. The president expressed confidence in a smooth transition of power. Egypt, he said, never suffered major problems with previous transitions and next time round should not be any different. And predictably he stressed he would not be pressured by anybody, as was the case with the previous US administration, on issues related to democracy and human rights in Egypt. "We do not accept pressure in politics or in domestic politics from any administration with due respect to all governments. We do not accept pressure on the pretext of domestic reform. It has to be home-grown. Reform has to be home-grown. And it is what the people demand." He added, "President Obama understands well what was done by the previous administration. Democracy is there in Egypt. We have freedoms that were not there before. We have an election of the president. We have freedom of the press. We have about 600 dailies and weeklies, give or take. We have improved and strengthened the power of parliament to even do away with a government. We are carrying out reforms based on the demands of the people. And I think President Obama must understand this very well." Mubarak evaded questions related to the status and fate of the Muslim Brotherhood. He simply insisted that they are outlawed by virtue of the constitution. "They have contacts with Hamas. They have contacts with Hizbullah. These are well-known. And they have contacts with many organisations. They have contacts with people of the international Muslim Brotherhood based in Geneva and elsewhere. But we can contain this." The president also rejected criticism suggested by Rose concerning the continued state of emergency, effective in Egypt since Mubarak took over power in 1981. "You do not grasp fully the emergency law. It has been there since the days of the British occupation. And it used to be called marshal law. We confine our recourse to the emergency law to terrorist crimes. Otherwise it is the rule of law under normal laws through the parquee [spelled phonetically] and the courts of law... We have demonstrations. But if you go by the letter of the emergency law, nobody would hold such demonstrations. And this emergency law was agreed upon by the majority." Moreover, the president -- without saying it in so many words -- suggested it was unlikely that he would either dissolve parliament or sack the government. "People say that the parliament might be dissolved, that this or that might be appointed, that the government might be sacked. I don't care about these [things] too much," he shrugged. In his interview with the editor of the Al-Ahram daily, Osama Saraya, the president declined any presumed link between the sustainability of US economic aid to Egypt and the pace of democratisation. Mubarak insisted that bilateral Egyptian-American relations must be conducted to serve the best interests of both sides. As such, he said, issues related to US aid to Egypt and the exchange of views on matters related to reform must be conducted within a formula that reflects the interests of both Cairo and Washington. The future of US economic aid to Egypt will be decided during scheduled meetings between officials who will examine ways to channel the bulk of aid towards the development of education and small and medium size business. As for the issue of democratisation, Mubarak said, "matters related to democracy, reform and human rights are strictly national affairs and we accept no pressure or foreign interference on these matters, be it from the US or any one else." On Middle East peace, President Mubarak told Rose that Obama did actually bring about a new opportunity for Arabs and Israelis to reach a settlement. The president complimented the efforts of Obama's Middle East special envoy George Mitchell and argued that the Mitchell consultations with the parties concerned are likely to produce a "good map" to make Middle East peace. Egypt, he affirmed, stands ready to contribute to the new US-led peace initiative once announced. In his interview with the Al-Ahram, Mubarak said, "There is much that [the summit with Obama] will examine, but it is the situation in the Middle East, especially the issue of Middle East peace, that will top the agenda during consultations with President Obama," Mubarak told Al-Ahram 's Editor-in-Chief Saraya in comments published on Monday. And in press statements on the day of the summit, Mubarak confirmed that the summit gave prominence to "the central Palestinian cause". While speaking to Saraya Mubarak expressed sympathy with the overall vision for peace Obama voiced in his June speech at Cairo University. "President Obama said that there is an opportunity to make peace in, and bring stability to, the Middle East. We have to work together to make sure that this opportunity is not wasted. The peace process cannot sustain another failure, and the misery of the Palestinian people must not be prolonged," stressed Mubarak. Mubarak did not ignore the scepticism many have expressed over Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's commitment to, or interest in, securing a historic peace deal with the Palestinians. He did, however, advise against allowing pessimism to reign prematurely. "When he took over, Prime Minister Netanyahu affirmed to me that his government will [work for] peace," the president said. He added that he had received similar assurances directly from both Israeli President Shimon Peres and minister Ehud Barak. While warning against pre-judging events, President Mubarak made no secret of his own apprehension. "I told the leaders of Israel that their statements must be coupled with action. I told them that a freeze of [illegal Israeli] settlements [on occupied Palestinian territories] is necessary and I told them that Palestinian-Israeli negotiations have to pick up from where they left with the previous Israeli government." Mubarak praised Obama's stance on the issue. "President Obama said that he is committed to making Middle East peace on the basis of the two-state solution. His positions testify to serious commitment on this front." Mubarak particularly praised the shift in the US stance on the issue of settlements: "Previous governments would confine themselves to qualifying settlements as a stumbling block to peace but this administration is demanding Israel freeze the settlements, including [those supposed to absorb] natural growth." On the issue of early steps towards Arab normalisation with Israel, Mubarak was explicit: past experience, ie the attempts made in the wake of the Madrid Peace Conference, show that it is not plausible for Arabs to pursue normalisation with Israel in the absence of "tangible progress in the peace process". According to President Mubarak, some Arab capitals that closed their trade offices in Israel, and Israeli offices in the respective Arab capitals, are now considering reopening them should Israel suspend the construction of illegal settlements. To further encourage the Israeli government to walk the path of peace, Mubarak told Rose that Egypt is hard at work to help release its soldier Gilad Shalit who has been held since the summer of 2006 by a Palestinian resistance movement associated with Hamas. He added that despite many a regional interference, progress is being made on this front. Alongside securing peace, Mubarak stressed that Middle East stability was also contingent on making the Middle East an area free of nuclear weapons. Egypt, he said, had no interest in sheltering beneath the US nuclear umbrella. Indeed, in his interview with Rose, Mubarak said that whatever happens with Iran's nuclear programme no military strike should be considered against Tehran. "I call on Iran to show flexibility in negotiations with the US... This issue of the nuclear capability of Iran, if it goes on like this, and it happens that military force is used, this will be against the whole region. I am against the use of military power. That's why I say this should be solved amicably; peacefully negotiate with representatives of the United States of America to resolve this issue in order that no military action would be brought about. We want to stop all military activity." The stability of the region, the president also told Rose, requires that all countries resolve bilateral problems and refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of one another. This, he said, should include Iran, Syria and Qatar.
