Mubarak's Washington visit broadens Mideast peace prospect
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By Muhammad Yamany, Wael Naguib
The visit of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to the United States was not followed by any big announcement as observers had anticipated, however, some analysts said that the visit widened the peace prospect in the Middle East.
Mubarak's visit touched on the final solution to the thorny issues of Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including the return of Palestinian refugees and halting Jewish settlements. It broadened the U.S. vision about Middle East peace process, said Professor Said al-Lawindy, head of international relations unit of the AL- Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.
Mubarak, 81, made his first visit in five years to the U.S. capital to meet with his counterpart Barack Obama this week. The veteran leader was at odds with Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, who invaded Iraq without Arabs' endorsement and pressured Egypt for democracy.
The visit was originally scheduled for May 26, but it was delayed after the sudden death of Mubarak's 12-year-old grandson.
In a press conference after their meeting on Tuesday, the two presidents expressed their hope that peace would prevail in the region and the peace process can not stand any more failure.
Al-Lawindy said that Mubarak's visit was built on Obama's speech to the Muslim world in Cairo which ushered in a new beginning of relations between the United States and the Muslim world, adding that the visit achieved its goal to broaden the peace vision.
On June 4, Obama delivered a landmark speech in Cairo in an attempt to reach out to the Muslim world, saying "The only resolution is for the aspirations of both sides to be met through two states, where Israelis and Palestinians each live in peace and security. That is in Israel's interest, Palestine's interest, America's interest, and the world's interest. That is why I intend to personally pursue this outcome with all the patience that the task requires."
Since then, the Obama administration has repeatedly demanded that Israel halt all settlement activities in both the occupied West Bank and the annexed East Jerusalem.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would not build any new settlements but construction must be permitted inside existing settlements to accommodate what he called "natural growth" in their population.
Shortly before his visit, Mubarak has said Egypt opposes Israel 's suggestion of a so-called "temporary solution" to settle the conflict with Palestinians, suggesting a fresh "final status solution" instead.
In their meeting on Tuesday, Obama and Mubarak agreed on the need to draft an immediate plan for reaching a final solution to the Middle East conflict.
Mubarak's spokesman Soliman Awaad said that Mubarak has urged the United States to unveil that plan.
The United States would still depend on Egypt in the future to solve the Middle East conflict, said Gehad Ouda, a political analyst and professor of political science at Egypt's Helwan University.
"Although there are some differences between Egypt and the United States about some issues such as the nuclear umbrella in the Middle East and democracy, they have more common views," Ouda said.
He said that Egypt and the United States would cooperate more in the next few months to start talks about the final solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, adding that Egypt's vision about Middle East peace would prevail as it is endorsed by many countries in the region.
"We obviously have a lot of great challenges to be dealt with, and we are continuing to work together to find those areas where we can find common ground and to work in concert to establish peace and security in the region," Obama said after meeting Mubarak on Tuesday.
The most important result of this visit is that it reflects a thaw in the relations between Egypt and the United States after the hard years of Bush's administration, said Dr. Abdel Moniem el- Mashat, head of Research and Political Studies Center at Cairo University.
Mubarak visited Washington regularly during the Clinton administration. Then relations between the two countries soured during the Bush era.
Cairo is trying to make Washington persuade Israel to engage in the final solution to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said el-Mashat, adding that Egypt is a key country in the region and is trying to help the United States solve Middle East problems without using military power.
Since February, Egypt has been sponsoring six rounds of national dialogue between rival Palestinian movements Hamas and Fatah to settle their political differences, but no tangible result has been achieved yet.
In an interview with PBS TV broadcast on Monday, Mubarak warned that without an agreement between Hamas and Fatah, there would be no peace, asserting that Egypt exerts strenuous efforts to reach a "meeting point".
On the other hand, el-Mashat expected that "in the near future, some small Arab countries would normalize their relations with Israel to encourage it to solve this decades-long conflict."
(Xinhua News Agency August 20, 2009)
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