CAIRO: Egyptian presidential candidate Amr Moussa revealed the details of a meeting between seven Egyptian presidential candidates on Tuesday The meeting was attended by Hisham al-Bastawisi, an Egyptian judge and the vice president of the Egyptian Court of Cassation; Mohammad Selim Al-Awa, an Egyptian Islamist intellectual and former Secretary General of the International Union for Muslim Scholars; Mohamed el-Baradei, Former Secretary-General of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency; Amr Moussa, Former Secretary-General of the Arab League; Hazem Salah Abu Ismail, an Egyptian Scholar and Islamic Intellectual; Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, Secretary-General of the Arab Medical Union, and Hamdeen Sabbahi, leader of the opposition party al-Karama. The candidates' managers also attended the two-hour meeting. “This meeting was an attempt to heal the cracks in Egyptian society, study the current situation, and find a way to end the current crisis,” said Moussa. Moussa stressed respecting freedom of expression, but asked the revolution's youth to face attempts to harm Egypt or its stability. “I renew my opposition to the emergency law. It was applied in Egypt for thirty years causing Egyptian people to suffer,” said Moussa. “Criminal laws are enough to punish the guilty.” He expressed his optimism about Egyptian reconstruction, saying Egypt would develop. Moussa said that the era of the second republic should depend on a new constitution, equality, freedom, separation of powers, and a revision of all laws broken by the former regime. “There is no place for remnants of the former regime or those who fabricated elections,” said Moussa. Moussa said the agricultural file would be at the top of his priorities. He prepared a group of experts to solve agricultural issues. Moussa opposes amnesty for former president Hosni Mubarak. “The upcoming president of Egypt will have limited authority. He will not apply or forbid laws. He will pass on issues to the government, parliament and other organizations which will rule Egypt,” said Moussa. Regarding the security situation and borders in the Sinai Peninsula, Moussa confirmed that it is important to re-consider this issue, in particular Egypt's relationships with African and Nile Basin countries. “Egypt's leading role and prestige weakened during last ten years,” said Moussa. Moussa also said that the Arab revolution must not lead Arab countries to neglect the Palestinian cause. On contrary, efforts must be resumed to regain Palestinian rights through the Arab Peace initiative. “Change in the Arab World is coming. Reforming is a necessary to avoid revolutions,” said Moussa. Moussa added that there is no way to back to old practice or dictatorship. “Revolution's spark that glowed in Tunis and moved to Egypt will not extinguish until it achieves great change in whole Arab region,” said Moussa.
