Comments (0)Mubarak: Peace Within Reach
June 28, 2009Washington
JTA Wire Service
Hosni Mubarak said a historic peace settlement between Israel and the Arab world is within reach.
“A historic settlement is within reach, one that would give the Palestinians their state and freedom from occupation while granting Israel recognition and security to live in peace,” wrote the Egyptian president in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal. “With President Obama’s reassertion of U.S. leadership in the region, a rare moment of opportunity presents itself. Egypt stands ready to seize that moment, and I am confident that the Arab world will do the same.”
Mubarak said the Palestinian issue “requires the greatest urgency,” but said that “many of the details of a final settlement are well known,” while the Arab peace initiative “provides a regional framework for such a settlement.”
The Arab initiative offered Israel full recognition in the Arab world if it retreated to the 1948 borders and agreed to a just resolution of the Palestinian refugee issue.
“Success of these negotiations will depend on firm commitments from both sides to uphold the credibility of the process,” Mubarak wrote. “Israel’s relentless settlement expansion, which has seriously eroded the prospects for a two-state solution, must cease, together with its closure of Gaza. For their part, the Palestinians must continue to develop their institutional capacity while overcoming their division to achieve their aspirations for statehood.”
He continued, “While full normalization with Israel can only result from a comprehensive settlement including the Syrian, Lebanese as well as Palestinian track, the Arab side stands ready to reciprocate serious steps towards peace undertaken by Israel.”
Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he supported President Obama’s handling of the situation, which has been criticized by members of Congress.
Netanyahu stressed that while Israel and much of the world support the protesters and want a change in government in Iran, it is most important to prevent the sitting government from developing nuclear weapons. The Israeli leader said he believes Obama is committed to preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power.
“We all don’t want to see this regime acquiring nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said, going on to say “It’s not merely an interest of Israel. It’s my view that there’s an American commitment to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Netanyahu added that Israel “always reserves the right to defend itself. We are threatened as no other people are threatened.”
The American Jewish Committee condemned “the brutal repression directed by the Iranian regime against millions of Iranian citizens protesting the apparent fixing of the June 12 presidential elections,” according to a statement.
“The distressing scenes from Iran seen around the world—despite the best efforts of the regime to censor the media—expose President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the hypocrite and the thug we’ve always known him to be,” said AJC Executive Director David Harris. “What the repression on the streets of Tehran showcases is the simple fact that today the Iranian regime, led by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and supported by President Ahmadinejad, maintains its power through terror and violence.”
Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad warned the United States and Britain to stop interfering in his country’s internal affairs, the state-run ISNA news agency reported.
“They [Western countries] want to portray as small the great and powerful position that has been created for the Iranian nation inside and outside after the recent election, by which of course they made a mistake and they showed they still do not know the Iranian nation,” Ahmadinejad reportedly said during a meeting with clerics.
This story reprinted courtesy of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.