Eye on Washington

By Nevine Khalil
As the world watches and waits for the transition of power in Washington, President Hosni Mubarak and his Syrian counterpart, Bashar Al-Assad, have urged the new US administration under the coming leadership of George W Bush to take an active interest in Middle East peace-making. "I hope the new administration will continue to show interest in the peace process," Mubarak told the Middle East News Agency (MENA) in an interview on Sunday, noting that it was during the tenure of George Bush senior that the Madrid peace conference was launched in 1991. In a joint news conference with Mubarak on Monday, Al-Assad expressed hope that the younger Bush's administration "will perform better than the previous administration, will be serious in activating the peace process and will not be biased in Israel's favour." He added that Washington would also be responsible for "repairing the damage inflicted on the peace process."
Mubarak told MENA that time had run out for President Bill Clinton to crown eight years of peace-making with a Palestinian-Israeli agreement. Mubarak doubted that "anything would happen" before George W settled in the White House. Clinton will step down on 20 January, while Israelis go to the polls to elect a prime minister on 6 February.
To assess the prospects for regional peace in the coming few months, Mubarak visited Damascus for a few hours on Monday for talks with Al-Assad. The visit was his first since Al-Assad became president last summer. Mubarak described Egyptian-Syrian relations as "the backbone" of Arab solidarity, and the two presidents were said to have seen eye-to-eye on all the major issues in the region, especially the peace process.
During the news conference, Mubarak poked holes in the latest American proposals, saying that this attempt to establish principles for a final deal were unacceptable to the Palestinians. "Clinton's ideas did not offer the Palestinians their full rights, giving them incomplete territories and sovereignty," he said.
Mubarak had said earlier that the Palestinians would not accept any non-Arab sovereignty over East Jerusalem. While the Israelis were offering the return of 92 to 96 per cent of the territory of the West Bank, "the maps and reality on the ground give a completely different picture," because the offer excludes Jerusalem and the land on which settlements are built.
"Although Yasser Arafat's morale is high, he is in a very difficult situation because he will not, and cannot, accept what the Israelis are offering," Mubarak told MENA. He stressed that agreements reached under pressure would not lead to a comprehensive and just peace. "Even if we presume that the Palestinians give in to pressure from other parties and accepts things which go counter to their rights, the fate of these solutions and agreements is failure." Mubarak added that the Palestinian people "will not allow the implementation of any agreement which contradicts their rights and interests."
Mubarak criticised Israel's foot-dragging in implementing signed agreements, as well as Tel Aviv's attempts to lay the blame at the doorstep of the Palestinians. "The Israelis imagined that if they starved the Palestinians, they would be forced to accept what was on offer," he said. "That will not happen and cannot possibly be the solution to the problem. Solving the issue by punishment is futile and unhelpful."
The president lambasted Israel's so-called "pre-emptive measures" against the Palestinians, saying that excessive aggression "makes the Palestinian people desperate and more willing to sacrifice their lives."
Al-Assad indicated that Syria was seeking to defuse the tension with Palestine which followed its break from a united Arab negotiating front and its reaching a separate peace deal with Israel in Oslo in 1993. He said the two sides were "in contact," but noted that higher-level meetings were not imminent. "We hope that the current contacts will develop into comprehensive coordination with the Palestinians," he added.
Commenting on the upcoming Israeli elections, and the heated rivalry between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Likud's hawkish leader Ariel Sharon, Mubarak criticised the competition between the Israeli right and left to denounce the principles of peace and reject the return of Jerusalem and the Golan Heights to their rightful people. "The reality is that there will be no stability or security in the region unless a just and comprehensive peace is reached," Mubarak said. Al-Assad agreed, adding that Israeli threats of war against Syria were "nothing new," and were only Tel Aviv's way of "projecting its internal problems into its foreign policy." He added that the region would remain "unstable" until a solution was found on the Syrian-Israeli track. And he invited other players, including the European Union and the United Nations, to take part in regional peace-making.
In the MENA interview, Mubarak described Israel's aggressive rhetoric as "cheap talk" that should cease because it only triggers the distrust of Arab countries. He cautioned Israeli election candidates not to rattle their sabres, since their statements "poison the atmosphere in the region." Mubarak said he was not in contact with either Barak or Sharon, and was not championing either camp. "We do not interfere in the [internal] affairs of others," he told MENA. "It is up to the Israeli people to choose whomsoever they want." Nonetheless, Mubarak described Sharon's statements and platform as "discomforting," and his visit to Al-Aqsa mosque last September as "provocative."
Related stories:
No, yes, but... 11 - 17 January 2001
A role for Clinton beyond 20 January? 4 - 10 January 2001
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
Send a letter to the Editor