Mubarak visits Paris, Berlin, Rome opposed to anti-terrorism coalition

CAIRO, Sept 21 (AFP) -

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak heads to Paris, Berlin and Rome next week for coordination talks in the wake of the attacks on the United States, opposed to what he sees as a potentially divisive coalition against terrorism.

Mubarak, whose country suffered a long wave of attacks by Muslim extremists during the 1990s, is trying to revive his long-touted idea for a UN conference on terrorism which would produce a convention binding on all signatories.

He is due in France on Monday for talks with President Jacques Chirac, who will be fresh from talks on the crisis in Washington, before heading to Berlin on Tuesday morning and Rome in the afternoon, diplomats in Cairo said.

While promising full cooperation with the "fight against terrorism" after the devastating hijacked plane attacks on New York and Washington, Egypt has shown reservations about the proposed US-led coalition.

"The problem we have with the idea of a coalition is that it would in fact divide the (world) into countries that are members of the coalition, members who are not, members who sit on the fence," Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said.

"Creating a coalition and choosing A, B, C countries to be members, not inviting country D or E would really not in our opinion be helpful," he said in an interview with Voice of America radio.

"What would it mean? Would it mean that we are accusing the other countries who are not being invited of encouraging terrorism?" Maher asked.

He argued that a convention on terrorism forged at a UN conference would make it "clear that those who would not abide by such a convention would be isolated because they would not have a part in the fight against terrorism."

Maher pressed the idea in a telephone conversation Thursday with US Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Many in Egypt also believe the West has not faced up to its full responsibilities in combatting terrorism, while actively encouraging forms of extremism in some cases.

"It's no secret that the so-called Islamist terrorist groups were once under the wing of the American secret services," a columnist in the government Al-Akhbar newspaper wrote Thursday.

During the decade-long war between the Soviet Union and Afghanistan the CIA allegedly supported and nurtured Muslim extremists in Afghanistan who are now harbouring Osama bin Laden, number one suspect in the September 11 attacks which destroyed the World Trade Center in New York.

"The very state which is leading the call for this (anti-terrorism) alliance has had wide experience in creating terrorists, supporting them and protecting them to use them when the time is right," Al-Akhbar said.

During the 1990s Egypt also called on Western countries to hand over Egyptian Islamists living there under political asylum who have been condemned by Egyptian courts for their part in terrorist acts here.

"We have suffered from terrorism for a long time, at a time when some of our friends did not realise how important it was to tackle the question of terrorism," Maher said, in an apparent discreet reference to the subject.

Mubarak's programme in Germany and Italy were not available, but Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said in Berlin that Mubarak would also discuss the situation in the Middle East, where a very fragile ceasefire is in place.

Addressing a special session of the German parliament after the attacks against the United States, Schroeder noted the Palestinian ceasefire and Israeli troop withdrawals of the previous day had eased the situation.

"From this point of view we must pursue dialogue with moderate Arab leaders," Schroeder added, saying that he had in the past few days been in touch with Jordan's King Abdullah II and the Egyptian head of state.

http://asia.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/world/afp/article.html?s=asia/headlines/010921/world/afp/Mubarak_visits_Paris__Berlin__Rome_opposed_to_anti-terrorism_coalition.html

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2001

Answers

Egypt rejects U.S. coalition, upgrades ties with Iraq

CAIRO — As a policy debate rages at top levels in the Bush administration over attacking the regime of President Saddam Hussein, Egypt is moving to improve relations with Iraq. Egyptian diplomats said President Hosni Mubarak plans to raise the level

of representation between Baghdad and Cairo to the level of ambassador. They said diplomatic ties would be raised commensurate to the level of trade relations.

Egypt has refused to participate in a U.S.-led military coalition against any Saudi billionaire fugitive Osama Bin Laden or any of his government sponsors. Instead, Mubarak has called for a United Nations-sponsored conference on international terrorism, Middle East Newsline reports.

Egypt has sent a new charge d'affaires to Baghdad. He is Hussein Zoghbi, a 59-year-old former ambassador to Eritrea.

In an interview to the Egyptian official Middle East News Agency, Zoghbi said Egyptian-Iraqi relations would soon be renewed at the level of full diplomatic ties. He said such relations are developing in cooperation with Iraq.

Egypt and Iraq have agreed to increase trade relations, including the establishment of a free trade zone. Iraq has also agreed to increase the number of Egyptian laborers in the country.

Zoghbi said his job would focus on representing Egyptian nationals in Iraq

http://asia.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/world/afp/article.html?s=asia/headlines/010921/world/afp/Mubarak_visits_Paris__Berlin__Rome_opposed_to_anti-terrorism_coalition.html

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2001

Well, i guess that is one Egyptian that is a DGI.

As Bush said, either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.

And, if you are with the terrorists, you will suffer the same fate as the terrorists.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is 'on the list,' now.

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2001