- CAIRO (AP) President Hosni
Mubarak warned Israel Wednesday against the consequences in the Middle
East of its policy toward the Palestinians.
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- "I warn the Israeli government again against the
grave consequences of its policy on the future of the whole Middle East
region including the security and stability of the Israeli people,"
Mubarak said in a speech.
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- Mubarak's speech, delivered before several hundred senior
military officers and televised live, marked the 29th anniversary of the
October 6, 1973 Mideast war, when the Egyptian army launched a surprise
attack across the Suez Canal, dislodging Israel's army from positions along
the east bank of the waterway. Mubarak was Egypt's air force chief during
the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
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- "The great [Mideast] peace process is facing grave
dangers because of the policies of the current Israeli government which
are merely based on using force to achieve its goals," Mubarak said.
He cited attacks on Palestinian civilians, the assassination of wanted
militants, demolishing homes, reoccupying cities and towns, and besieging
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as part of those policies.
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- "I call on all countries, especially the United
States, to move to stop this flagrant aggression on the Palestinian people
and their leadership to save peace and security in the Middle East,"
he said.
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- Mubarak paid tribute to British Prime Minister Tony Blair
for his support in a speech Tuesday at his Labor party's annual gathering
in which he expressed support for the creation of a Palestinian state based
on the boundaries of 1967.
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- "I highly appreciate Blair's statement," he
said.
- Mubarak said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon "does not
want a peaceful solution ... I say this frankly and they [the Israelis]
will hear it and get angry. But why should they get angry about their own
actions?"
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- On the US-Iraq standoff, Mubarak repeated his call for
the Iraqi leadership to let the UN weapons inspectors work freely and unimpeded
so as not to give the United States a pretext for an attack.
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- But he added that if the UN Security Council backed a
US attack, "then I have nothing in my hands to do, but it will lead
to big problems soon."
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- "We have to work to avoid the strike and at the
same time make sure Iraq is free of weapons of mass destruction,"
he said.
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