Mubarak Plans Urgent Appeal to Bush

07/06/2002| IslamWeb

HIGHLIGHTS: Mubarak & Sharon Visits Come in the Context of an On-going Review of U.S. Mideast Policy||Egyptian Foreign Minister & American Counterpart Workout Agenda For Mubarak Bush Camp David Talks Friday||Visit Comes As Washington Questions Arafat's Relevance to Peace Process||Senators Suggest Jerusalem Visit to Mubarak|| STORY: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is calling on President Bush with an urgent appeal to set a timeline for ending Israel's hold on the West Bank and Gaza and for establishing a Palestinian state.

Bush intends to listen closely and assure Mubarak he intends to set guidelines for Mideast peacemaking, U.S. officials said.
Mubarak's visit Friday is part of an ongoing review. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will see Bush on Monday, and the administration plans further consultations with Mideast leaders.

At this point, a senior U.S. official said, the focus of U.S. diplomacy is on instilling democracy in the Palestinian Authority while helping to build the state Bush has already endorsed.

Mubarak scheduled meetings with Secretary of State Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, the president's assistant for national security, before seeing Bush.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher worked out an agenda with Powell on Thursday for the talks Mubarak and Bush will hold at Camp David on Friday evening and Saturday morning.

ARAFAT'S FUTURE IN QUESTION

On Thursday, as the beleaguered Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat withstood another Israeli siege of his West Bank compound, American diplomats elicited assurances from Israeli authorities he would not be harmed in the incursion, itself a response to another deadly Palestinian bombing.

Only a day earlier, the White House questioned Arafat's trustworthiness and pledged to increase contacts with a new generation of Palestinian leaders who may be more willing to curb terrorism.

SENATOR'S SUGGEST JERUSALEM VISIT TO MUBARAK

Mubarak met over lunch Thursday with Vice President Dick Cheney. House and Senate delegations called on the Egyptian leader at Blair House, the presidential guesthouse across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House.

Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., suggested to Mubarak that he try to break the stalemate between Israel and the Arabs with a visit to Jerusalem. Lantos also made the suggestion to Rice. (Read photo caption)

In 1977, Mubarak's predecessor, the late Anwar Sadat, flew to Jerusalem in a dramatic gesture that resulted in a peace treaty with Israel two years later.

RENEWED MIDEAST VIOLENCE CLOUDES MUBARAK'S TALKS

Renewed violence in the Middle East clouds Bush's back-to-back talks with Mubarak and Sharon. Egypt's view is that the attacks on Israel are due directly to Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

Sharon has questioned whether progress can be made in peacemaking amid the violence. Bush administration officials say they are determined to push ahead and try to bolster Israel's security simultaneously.

PHOTO CAPTION

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, right, and others, meets with senators at Blair House in Washington Thursday, June 6, 2002, prior to his meeting this weekend with President Bush to discuss the Mideast situation. From left are, Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., Sen. John Warner, R-Va., and Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. (AP Photo/Kamenko Paj