Mubarak In U.S. Proposes Meeting On Palestine

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WASHINGTON, March 5 - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will propose organizing
a meeting between hardline Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian
leader Yasser Arafat at Sharm el-Sheikh, the Egyptian leader said.

"Let us give the people some hope that peace could prevail ... I am to ask
Arafat and Sharon to come and sit," Mubarak said in a live broadcast interview
on CNN. "We will discuss some points, so as to make that atmosphere much
better. And after that they can continue the discussions with ministers. It's a
matter of good impression to the public opinion in Israel and in the
Palestinian lands."

Asked about the feasibility of such an encounter, Mubarak said: "From the side
of Arafat we can push, but I don't know if Mr. Sharon is going to respond to
that or not."

The meeting would not be to end the crisis, Mubarak said in the CNN
interview, "but to give the impression to both parties, to the people on both
sides, to the people in the Arab world that there is a window of hope that we
have to work with."

According to CNN, Mubarak said he "had a long talk with [Sharon] on the
telephone. ... I told him that 'I would like to sit with you bilaterally.' I
told him, 'I have no problem with you. There's no problem with Egypt and
Israel. The main problem is the Palestinian problem and the one that is going
on.'"

The Egyptian president further revealed that during the telephone conversation,
Sharon had asked him to organize a "secret meeting" with Saudi Crown Prince
Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz.

"I sent the message to Crown Prince Abdullah. But I don't think that Crown
Prince Abdullah, the country of the holy places [the Saudi cities of Mecca and
Medina], will be able to meet with Sharon unless there is peace." Mubarak said.

Abdullah, Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, has proposed supporting full Arab ties
with Israel in exchange for a complete Israeli withdrawal from territory it
occupied in the 1967 Middle East war. Israeli Cabinet Secretary Gideon Saar
said the Saudi peace proposal was unacceptable to Israel, though the Cabinet
made no formal decision at its weekly meeting on Sunday.

Mubarak met first with Secretary of State Colin Powell and had a series of high-
level meetings on tap. They met for 45 minutes at Blair House, the presidential
guesthouse across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House. They made no
statement afterward, reported news agencies.

The Egyptian president told the Washington Times Monday that any U.S. attack on
Iraq that kills innocent civilians would inflame lingering anti-American
sentiment among the Arab public.

U.S. President George W. Bush’s administration considers Iraq a supporter of
terrorism. Combined with President Saddam Hussein's alleged pursuit of weapons
of mass destruction, it is high on the U.S. list of potential targets, news
agencies report.

"He's a threat to his neighbors, to the world, to his own people," said
National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice.

But Rice said, "I can assure you the president has made no decision about the
use of force against Iraq."

Mubarak also warned in an interview published in the Times newspaper that
terrorists are still active in Afghanistan and have sleeper cells in the United
States waiting to strike out.

"You have several organizations in the United States. Now they are all
sleeping, keeping very quiet as if they are very innocent, until they feel
there is some freedom. Then they are going to attack," he warned.

Mubarak called for extreme vigilance and close international cooperation
against terrorism.

"The Afghanistan problem did not come to an end" with the defeat of the Taliban
regime in Kabul, he said. "It needs a lot of work, a lot of cooperation. These
people are very dangerous, and you have to watch them, even in the United
States."

Mubarak said Egypt had played an important role in the international fight
against terror since the September 11 terror attacks on the United States. "We
have given the Americans since September 11 a great deal of help, but this is
not declared. Intelligence help, names, other things," he said, without
elaborating.

In the interview, on the issue of Mideast peace, Mubarak largely pinned the
blame on the current escalation of violence on Sharon. "The period with Sharon
has been the most terrible violence since the peace process started ... in
1977," he said.

"We have never seen such violence and killing and using arms. I am afraid of
more escalation," he said.

The current unrest, he continued, is "making Arafat have much more popularity.
He is winning, and the Israelis are losing. Sharon cannot understand this,"
Mubarak told the daily.

Bush, Mubarak Urge End of Violence

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WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush (news - web sites) and Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak (news - web sites) searched Tuesday for solutions to the
spiraling violence in the Middle East, with Bush emphasizing the need to stop
Palestinian attacks on Israelis while Mubarak demanded that Israel ease up on
the Palestinians.Bush said peace in the Middle East is "only possible if there
is a maximum effort to end violence throughout the region, starting with
Palestinian efforts to stop attacks on Israelis."

Mubarak, for his part, called for an end to forceful Israeli military tactics
such as demolishing Palestinian homes and closing roads.

"Nothing can be achieved through violence or resolved by force," the Egyptian
said.

Bush also spoke favorably of a Saudi Arabian proposal, which would offer Israel
peace, trade and security in exchange for the land the Arabs lost in war, and
of Mubarak's offer to be the host for talks between Arafat and Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites).

Israeli officials have said they are eager to go to the Arab kingdom to follow
it up with talks, but the Saudis are discouraging such discussions

Asked about that disagreement, Bush came down squarely on Israel's side. He
praised the Saudi "vision" of peace and said he supports those who "are trying
to look at what it means."

Mubarak, who wants to play a middleman role in peace efforts, criticized only
Israel for the current crisis. Bush directed his call for an end to violence to
the Palestinians.

"We're both determined to redouble our efforts to work for peace," Bush said,
referring to himself and the Egyptian president.

Mubarak said of the Israelis, "The closure of roads, the siege of towns and
villages, the demolition of houses, the collective punishment that make
progress more difficult should stop."

Speaking of the growing violence, Bush said officials in both the United States
and Egypt "view this situation with great alarm."

"We both feel deep sympathy for the people in the region who are trying to live
their lives in peace," he said.

In Jerusalem, Israeli officials let it be known Sharon considers a meeting with
Arafat useless while Palestinian attacks against Israelis continue. Mubarak
said he would not meet with Sharon unless Arafat attended as well.

In a speech before his meeting with Bush, Mubarak declared he was not "pro-
Arafat" but said the Palestinians would be free to choose another leader after
peace is achieved.

"I have no problems with the Palestinians or the Israelis," Mubarak said, as he
sought to put Egypt forward as an evenhanded mediator between the two sides.

Mubarak, in his speech before the meeting with Bush, left no doubt about his
views of Israel's continued hold on part of the West Bank and Gaza and,
presumably, east Jerusalem. Without referring to Israel directly, he said "land
was occupied by force" and an entire population was denied its right to
nationhood.

Israel took Egypt's sprawling Sinai peninsula in the same 1967 war that it took
the other lands. A 1979 peace treaty, granting Israel peace and security in
exchange for the occupied territory, eventually returned the peninsula to Egypt.

Similarly, Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has made the price of peace
Israel's withdrawal from all of the West Bank, Gaza and part of Jerusalem that
Arafat wants as capital of a Palestinian state.

Mubarak said in his speech the aim of peace talks should be to "end the
injustice of all the peoples" in the Middle East.

Elaborating, he said the result of the forced occupation of land had been to
deny "an entire people its right to a nation."

"Occupation must end," the Egyptian president said to some 1,000 people invited
by the private Council on Foreign Relations and the Middle East Institute, a
research group. "Palestinians must have their rights. We want an end to the
cycle of injustice."

Mubarak carried to Bush a mixed position on terrorism. He said Tuesday "the
world community must work together in confronting terror," but he declined to
state his position on Iraq.

It is known to be one of urging caution. Mubarak's view is that U.S. stock in
the Arab world, already damaged by the Bush administration's implacable support
for Israel, would sink further if Iraqis are killed in a U.S. attack.

On another sensitive subject, a senior U.S. official said the Bush
administration was taking up with the Egyptians suspicions that Egypt is
importing missile technology from North Korea (news - web sites).

Egypt has denied the allegations, but the administration does not appear to be
convinced.

In Dubai, United Arab Emirates, a Saudi official said Abdullah had rejected
several requests, including one from Mubarak, to meet secretly with Sharon on
the proposal.

Nor would the crown prince, Saudi's de facto leader because of the illness of
King Fahd, consider a meeting between lower-ranking Israelis and Saudis,
according to the Saudi official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Abdullah "is well aware of the kingdom's standing in the Islamic and Arab
worlds, and he (would) prefer to withdraw his proposal if its success depended
on a Saudi-Israeli meeting," the official said.