AS PART of celebrations marking the 23rd anniversary of Sinai's liberation from Israeli occupation, President Hosni Mubarak gave a speech in Ismailia on Saturday urging younger people to become more involved in the ongoing reform process. "I call on the youth now, more than at any other time, to participate in the ongoing march towards political, economic and social reform," Mubarak told the audience, members of the Second Field Army. "I call on the younger generation to look to the generation which liberated Sinai through war and peace as role models; I call on them to step up to their responsibility of protecting what has been achieved on the road to development and construction." Mubarak described the march towards reform as "our vehicle to cross into the future, and the tool to modernise and develop our society". The question and answer session following the speech highlighted domestic, regional and international developments, including conditions in Iraq, the situation in Darfur, the need to implement the Palestinian-Israeli understandings reached at the Sharm El- Sheikh summit, and amending the constitutional article regulating presidential elections. Mubarak's address followed a meeting of the Armed Forces Higher Council; later, after meeting the Second Army, Mubarak attended a luncheon with a select group of senior and junior officers, and then toured farms that are part of Armed Forces land reclamation projects in Ismailia's Al-Qassasin. The farms -- which export their produce to Arab and European countries -- provide 500 job opportunities. While most of Sinai was returned to Egyptian sovereignty after Egypt and Israel signed a peace agreement in 1979, the town of Taba -- on the border with Israel -- was only returned in 1989 after international arbitration. "I had the honour of raising the Egyptian flag over Taba after long and arduous political and legal negotiations," Mubarak told the audience; the president called the Sinai Peninsula "the land of war and peace". In fact, the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh is often referred to as "the city of peace" on account of the many historic peace-seeking summits and conferences it hosts. "We look to achieving peace, security and stability for the rest of the states and peoples of the Middle East," Mubarak stated. "Egypt cannot live in isolation from the [conflicts] in its region, and has never refrained from supporting the Palestinian people and their just cause." The recent progress, Mubarak said, "restores hope in re-launching the peace process. We hope that all regional and international parties do not let this opportunity pass them by."
