President Hosni Mubarak said Wednesday he hoped a simmering crisis between the nation's judges and lawyers would be resolved as soon as possible, adding that he "had never and would never intervene into judicial rulings". Mubarak hopes that the crisis between both wings of justice, the lawyers and the judges, will soon come to and end. However, he could not intervene in a judicial ruling," presidential spokesman Suleiman Awwad said Wednesday after Mubarak held an open meeting with the parliamentary bloc of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP). He added that Mubarak was replying to some MPs who had asked him to resolve the crisis. "This matter can be resolved by wise, veteran lawyers and judges within a framework of mutual respect," Awwad quoted Mubarak as saying. The Egyptian lawyers are holding a strike nationwide to protest against the jailing of two of their colleagues in the Delta town of Tanta for assaulting a senior judge. The appeal is being heard while the two lawyers are still behind bars. Addressing regional threats, Mubarak said Egypt would "safeguard its national security interests and guarantee its people water, nutrition and protection from the dangers of terrorism". Meanwhile, Mubarak rejected Wednesday attempts to "perpetuate the internal Palestinian division" and said that the Palestinian people were the only ones paying the price for it. He added that Israel was taking advantage of the division to continue delaying the peace process. The Egyptian leader also rejected Israel's attempts to "shirk commitments towards the Gaza Strip" and place it on Cairo. "We are making efforts to lift the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip," he said. During the meeting with NDP parliamentarians, it was agreed that Safwat el-Sherif would be renamed as the chairman of the Shura Council (the Upper House of the Parliament), whichwill reconvene Thursday after its mid-term election. Mubarak appointed 44 members to the House late Tuesday.
