What will coming encounters between Mubarak and Obama bring for Egypt and the region? Dina Ezzat seeks answers President Hosni Mubarak is set to visit the US next month for the first time in five years. The first summit between Mubarak and new US President Barack Obama is expected to be followed by another encounter that should take place in Egypt in the following month. During their upcoming meetings, Mubarak and Obama would have much to sift through, starting with Egyptian-US strategic rapport and widening to embrace the situation in the region, especially in relation to Iran and the Arab-Israeli peace process. "I accepted the invitation of the US president to visit the US at a time where we are looking to turn on a new page in Egyptian-American relations, and the visit would be a good opportunity to discuss bilateral relations as well as regional issues of common interest," Mubarak said over the weekend. Mubarak was upfront in attributing a five-year break of an otherwise annual routine visit to the US -- Egypt's most influential Western ally -- to the "policies of the previous US administration". The invasion of Iraq, the exaggerated accommodation of Israel's reluctance to pursue peace with the Palestinians, and -- perhaps above all -- the vocal intervention of Washington in internal Egyptian affairs in the name of promoting democratic reforms put on hold Egyptian-American relations deemed close since the signing of the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty under President Anwar El-Sadat in 1979. Today, Mubarak said he would explain to the new US administration why it was wrong for the US to pursue the policies of the past eight years and what needs to be done to fix the mistakes of this time. Egyptian diplomats say that what Egypt is expecting of the US is very simple: serious commitment to the Arab-Israeli peace process; a sensitive approach towards matters of democracy and human rights in Egypt; and an understanding that "bowing to Iran's alleged regional superiority would do the US and its regional allies much harm." Egypt's interest to get the US president to understand that any US-Iran dialogue should not overlook Egyptian concerns over "Iran's attempt to exercise hegemony over the region" is as much a priority as getting Obama to take a favourable stance on stabilising US economic aid to Egypt at an annual of $400 million, diplomats say. The Bush administration suggested to Congress a figure a little over $200 million. "We realise that the US and Iran are embarking on a serious dialogue and we see that the US needs to win Iran over before the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, and in view of the security challenges that the US faces in Afghanistan but we also want to make sure that the US is aware of the interventions, very destructive ones, that Iran is inducing on the Palestinian front, in Lebanon and across the Arab world," commented an Egyptian official who asked for his name to be withheld. Above all, he added, Egypt is determined to explain to the US the negative influence of Iran over the prospects of promoting the cause of Arab-Israeli peace. In a speech marking the anniversary of the liberation of Sinai, President Mubarak announced his determination to face up to what he qualified as Iranian attempts to sweep over the region. "We will not tolerate the interventions of regional forces that are opposed to peace and that are pushing this region to the edge, only to serve their agenda and to expand their influence," Mubarak said in oblique reference to Iran. Without naming it, the Egyptian president blamed Iran for fomenting discord among Palestinians and Arabs and for using "its agents in the region to tamper with Egyptian national security". Egyptian diplomats are denying that Egypt wants the US to halt its dialogue with Iran. "Rather the opposite: we want the US to make its dialogue with Iran an incentive for Tehran to change its unhelpful regional attitudes. We want the Americans to tell the Iranians that it is not just the stability of Iraq that Washington expects Iran to help with, but the stability of Lebanon, of Gaza, and of the entire region," said the same official. Ultimately, he added, Egypt wants the US to realise that "no security arrangements for the Arab Gulf area could be designed without some sort of consultation with Egypt". To get Iran in place, Egyptian diplomats say, it is crucial to pursue an active and serious process of peaceful negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis. Otherwise, they say, Iran could use legitimate Arab frustration with the failure of the Arab-Israeli peace process to serve "Tehran's expansionist agenda in the name of defying Israeli aggression". Therefore, Egypt is not only going to ask Obama to commit to promote Middle East peace, but is actually taking serious steps in this direction itself. President Mubarak announced over the weekend that he had invited Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to visit Egypt to discuss the chances of picking up peace negotiations from where his predecessor, Ehud Olmert, left off. Mubarak said that he was not going to take any positions against the right- wing Israeli government and would judge it on the basis of its commitment to make peace with the Palestinians. While Egypt is putting aside for now any possible visits by Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman (for reason of past aggressive statements he made against Egypt), Cairo is not going to close the door to all contacts with the Israeli official. "If he could make a decent statement to amend the statements he had made before... then we could be working with him to serve the prospects of peace," commented an Egyptian diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity. According to this diplomat, Lieberman had promised General Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman during a visit to Tel Aviv Monday that he would make an appropriate conciliatory statement. Lieberman had made several aggressive statements against Egypt that included a threat to bombard the Aswan High Dam. By the account of Egyptian officials, the most "rude and hostile statement" was the one where the now Israeli foreign minister said that President Mubarak could "go to hell if he does not want to visit Israel". Since assuming office in 1981, Mubarak has made the achievement of Palestinian-Israeli peace a condition for his visiting Israel, only making a very brief exception to attend the funeral of former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, assassinated in 1995 by an anti-peace Israeli activist.
