Ambassador Suleiman Awad, the spokesman for the Presidency, said Egypt's response to the Hezbollah cell was clear in President Mubarak's speeches before the Second Army on the occasion of the liberation of Sinai and on Labor Day. On Hassan Nasrallah denying involvement of his party in that cell, Awad said: "What I want to emphasize is that there is no problem between Egypt and Lebanon as states. Our relations have always been friendly, and we share a common history. But Egypt does not recognize those who are trying to form a state within a state, and it will not engage in nonsense. Also we have no problem with Hezbollah's Shiite inclinations, as Al-Qaeda is a terrorist organization that we strongly condemn although it is Sunni. But we condemn the party and Iran for trying to destabilize the Egyptian national security and undermine the Arab identity. The matter now is in the hands of the judiciary as President Mubarak said from the first day."
Commenting on Nasrallah saying that the charges of the Egyptian regime against his party did not achieve any of its objectives, and that some bodies are mediating between Cairo and the party, Dr. Gamal Salama, a political science professor at Suez Canal University, said: "Nasrallah said this in an apologetic tone and not in his usual enthusiastic and revolutionary tone, which means he is trying to absolve himself."
