CAIRO: In his first appearance in Egyptian media after the January 25 Revolution, former Foreign Minister, Ahmed Abu Gheit, denied all media reports claiming that he escaped outside Egypt and that he has a foreign citizenship. Abu Gheit lives in Kafr Hasasa in the governorate of Qaliobeyia and had lunch with his friends in the village, he said on ‘Cairo Today' talk show. He said the reports are rumors and baseless. He contacted the editor–in-chief of the newspaper that published the reports and denied he has British nationality. Abu Gheit said he will never cede his Egyptian nationality under any circumstances. He served his country for 46 years. Abu Gheit said his last trip out of Egypt was to attend the African Summit in January 30. He came back his home to participate in people committees to protecting Egypt from thugs. Egypt will be better concerning Foreign Affairs by practicing democracy and as a leading role in the Middle East, he continued. Abu Gheit said his last meeting with the former President Hosni Mubarak was on February 9 when Mubarak was to meet the Russian envoy to discuss the Egyptian situation. Abu Gheit added he did not notice any indication that Mubrak would step down. Commenting about the normalization with Iran, Abu Gheit said Iran is an Islamic state with great influence in Middle East. He noted Egypt, Iran and Turkey represent the core of the Middle East. Saudi Arabia joined them recently. So all these countries should establish a strong relation among each other. Iran has a lot of problems with other Gulf Countries and with the West. Egypt has to be careful approaching Iran, and put Egyptians who live in Gulf States into consideration. Abu Gheit said there are reasons behind Mubarak's decision in stepping down, including old age, his power on Egypt started to deteriorate, the idea of presidential succession, and the mixture of money and authority. Abu Gheit added Mubarak was seeing political parties as cartoonist parties with no effect on Egyptian streets. He declined to answer the question as to which figure has great a impact on Mubarak's decisions, but he said former Chief of Presidential Staff, Zakareya Azmi, was the closest friend to Mubarak. Abu Gheit also refused to talk about Mubarak's fortune, since it is not his business. The Former Minister added also that Mubarak's pride prevented him to leave Egypt, referring to the foreign proposals to Mubarak to leave Egypt. Abu Gheit said Gamal Mubarak's influence on Egypt was "terrible." However he added Gamal did not dare to intervene in the policies of foreign affairs since it concerns state security. Regarding the priority of forming a constitution or holding the parliamentary elections, Abu Gheit said it is logical to put together a new constitution and then hold the parliamentary elections. He said the upcoming parliamentary election aims to form a transitional parliament. Mubarak did not hate presidential Nominee Mohammed el-Baradei but the appearance of other figures stimulated his sensibility, according to Abu Gheit.
