EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT Hosni Mubarak has called on Israel to examine its policies and initiate concrete steps to build trust with the Palestinian Authority so that peace negotiations can be restarted.
During talks yesterday with Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Mr Mubarak said Israel must “revise its position and policy and embark on tangible procedures ... to reach a final settlement, not in stages or temporary, that ends the occupation and establishes an independent Palestinian state”, said a statement issued by the president’s spokesman after the meeting.
Mr Netanyahu stressed that he believed that a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians was still possible provided that the latter were willing to end the conflict. He asked President Mubarak, who has mediated between the sides in the past, to act to persuade the Palestinians to engage immediately in direct, intensive and serious negotiations in which all the core issues will be raised.
Mr Mubarak also made it clear that Cairo opposed any “new aggression” against the residents of Gaza, and warned that Israel’s threats against Hamas may be detrimental to the peace process and regional stability.
Direct peace talks were broken off at the end of September by the Palestinians after Mr Netanyahu refused to commit to another long-term settlement building freeze.
Mr Mubarak blamed Israel for the collapse of talks in a speech to the Egyptian parliament last month and called on Washington to reinvigorate the process.
In an effort to break the diplomatic deadlock, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has called for a meeting of the Middle East quartet – the US, the EU, Russia and the United Nations – early next month.
In a statement issued after a two-day trip to the region, Baroness Ashton called on the parties to return to the negotiating table. “There is no alternative to a negotiated solution. Urgent progress is needed towards a two-state solution. We will do whatever is possible to help both parties choose the path of peace and engage in successful negotiations.”
While welcoming recent Israeli steps to ease the blockade on Gaza, she said more needed to be done.
“The crossings must be opened to allow the flow of humanitarian aid, imports, exports and people. We need to enable children to go to school and ordinary people to reconstruct their homes and get on with their lives,” Baroness Ashton said.
Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman told the EU foreign policy chief that the closure was imposed in an effort to stop arms smuggling into the Gaza strip.
“If you want to bring about a lifting of the closure around Gaza you should take responsibility and establish a strong, real and effective force to prevent smuggling there,” he said.
“I can promise you that the minute the smuggling of arms into Gaza stops, the closure will be lifted.”