Amr Moussa confirmed the authenticity of a document Youm7 published about the exportation of Egyptian gas to Israel. Moussa denied he was involved in the gas deal, but he confirmed that the document was one of the Egyptian incentives encouraging Israel to honor its commitments after the Madrid conference. The spokesman for Moussa's electoral campaign declared that the Madrid conference, held in 1991, opened the door for direct negotiations between occupied Arab states and Israel. He added that the negotiations were accompanied by the so-called multilateral talks, which included the required measures to build confidence to push the negotiations forward. This activated the idea of regional cooperation across different fields, including energy. The spokesman praised Egyptian diplomacy's role in supporting negotiation, confirming the main objective of the deal was to tempt Israel with advantages it would gain if it cooperated with its Arab neighbors, especially Palestine. He said the document signaled that the foreign minister agreed with the petroleum minister to begin preliminary studies on exporting Egyptian gas to Gaza and Israel. He said that the step was aimed at getting Israel to offer important concessions in order to enjoy other advantages. He added the step was also aimed at providing the Gaza strip with Egyptian gas. Moussa's electoral spokesman highlighted that the document wasn't secret. It was dealt with as an Egyptian situation, aiming to support the negotiation process to end the Israeli occupation of Arab territories. As the documents of Egypt's Foreign Ministry have been recently leaked, Moussa will demand to open the issue to the people and public opinion. The spokesperson clarified the situation of the foreign ministry and the former minister, who expressed the Arab situation at the Madrid conference and supported Arab negotiators with abandoning Arab rights. The spokesman underlined Moussa's position against Israeli procrastination during the bilateral negotiations. He added that Moussa strongly contributed to suspending the negotiations and presented the Arab position in the conference of economic cooperation in the Middle East, held in 1994 in Morocco. He clarified that negotiation was the only solution for the conflict, so Arabs sought to build confidence with Israel, prompting study of how to support cooperation. He denied Moussa's responsibility for the agreements that were concluded after he left his position as Egypt's foreign minister. Readers can see Youm7's response to Moussa's declarations in Monday's edition.
