CAIRO: Former United Nations Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali launched his new book entitled "60 Years of Israeli-Arab Conflict Tuesday. The book features a political debate between Boutros-Ghali and Shimon Peres, the Israeli president and former prime minister, about the ongoing conflict. The debate draws on Boutros-Ghali's and Peres's former posts and roles in the conflict. The book discusses the formation of the Israeli state, the non-existence of a Palestinian state, the 1952 revolution in Egypt, the Suez crisis, the 1967 and the 1973 wars in Egypt, Sadat's visit to Jerusalem, the Camp David agreement, the Lebanese war, the Palestinian Intifada, Oslo agreements, the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat s death. Boutros-Ghali, who currently serves as the secretary general of the National Council for Human Rights, previously served as the Egyptian minister for foreign affairs and was among the group who traveled with former President Anwar Sadat in his 1977 trip to Jerusalem. He was also present at the negotiations with Moshe Dayan in the 1979 Arab-Israeli peace talks. In 1994, Peres was awarded the Nobel Peace prize for his role in the Palestinian independence agreements. Dar El Shorouq organized a press conference on Tuesday July 17 at the First Mall in Giza at to announce the launch of the book that was attended by Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa and Mostafa El Fiki, member in the People s Assembly and president of the British University in Egypt. The high profile event failed to live up to expectations. Technical problems and lack of space prevented attendees from hearing what Boutros-Ghali or his guests had to say about the book. Ghali signed copies of his book after the conference.
