EGYPT: Egypt backs U.S. plan to increase troops in Iraq.

Egypt, a key ally of Washington in the Middle East, voices support for the U.S. plan to send more troops to Iraq to help the government there improve security, especially in the capital and discusses the Arab-Israeli conflict with Rice. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on a lengthy Middle East tour, had talks on Monday (January 15) with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in the southern town of Luxor and later with Amr Moussa, Secretary- General of the Arab League. After their meeting Moussa, speaking to reporters, said that they had discussed the situation in Iraq and the Arab-Israeli conflict. "On Iraq we discussed the plan proposed by President Bush. As I said before, when President Bush declared, spoke to the nation, to the American nation about his new plan and his ideas we had to take that seriously and to consider it very thoroughly." Moussa said that after raising a number of questions and clarifying several aspects of the Bush plan they had agreed that it should be used. "At the end we agreed that the basic guidelines we should not deviate from and should ensure that they will govern, rule or guide all our work. The American as well as the Arab and the Iraqis and everybody," he said. Egypt's support on Monday may give U.S. President George W. Bush some encouragement at a time when his strategy faces strong opposition in Congress, where Democrats and some Republicans said they doubted it would quell sectarian violence. Arab public opinion, too, is generally opposed to the plan. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said after talks with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that he hoped the U.S. strategy would lead to the dismantling of militias that were "tormenting the Iraqi scene". "We are supportive of that plan because we are hopeful that the plan would lead to ensuring the stability, the unity and the cohesion of the Iraqi government," he told a joint news conference with Rice in the southern Egyptian town of Luxor. Egypt "understood the dynamics" behind the U.S. strategy as a result of his talks with Rice, he said. "We are hopeful that the plan would lead towards the dismantlement of whatever terror organisations as well as the military militias that are tormenting the Iraqi scene," Aboul Gheit said. Bush announced last week he was sending 21,500 extra U.S. troops to Iraq and, in a rare admission, said he had made a mistake by not deploying more troops sooner. American patience over Bush's handling of the war has been running thin. Bush said his new strategy was for Iraqis to try to take responsibility for security in all 18 provinces by November, up from three now. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak initially advised the United States not to invade Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein, saying this would lead to chaos. Egypt was friendly with Saddam in the 1980s but fell out with him over Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. About Gheit said he hoped the U.S. strategy would help build a strong and more united Iraqi government. "Of course helping Iraq to help itself is to work for certain amendments to the constitution in order to allow all factions and all Iraqi colours and all Iraqi forces to be on board in the process," he said. Asked about the executions on Monday of Saddam Hussein's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, the former head of the Mukhabarat intelligence service and former chief judge Awad Hamed al-Bander for crimes against humanity Rice said that the events had taken place under Iraqi jurisdiction. "The decisions concerning the execution of Saddam Hussein and the two defendants today obviously were made according to Iraqi processes and Iraqi law. I would be the first to say that we were disappointed that there was not greater dignity given to the accused under these circumstances," said Rice. She said she would bring Israeli and Palestinian leaders together soon for what she called informal talks on how to set up a Palestinian state. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would take part in the meeting and the aim would be to reach a "political horizon" for the Palestinian people, Rice told a news conference in Egypt. "I explained that I will soon meet with Prime minister Olmert and with President Abbas to have discussions about the broad issues on the horizon so that we can work on the Road Map, to try and accelerate the Road Map and to move to the establishment of a Palestinian state," said Rice. A senior U.S. official said the meeting would be held in three to four weeks, probably in the Middle East. Diplomats have used the term "political horizon" in the past to mean offering Palestinians a credible expectation they would have their own state and that Israeli occupation would end. Similar meetings have taken place in the six years since talks on a comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian peace deal broke down in 2001 but the U.S. official, who was travelling with Rice, said this one would be different. When talks broke down in 2001, Israel was close to agreement on a Palestinian state including the Gaza Strip and most of the West Bank. But a change of government in Israel after the start of a second Palestinian uprising led to a long stalemate. Rice has been pressing Olmert to take steps that could help bolster Abbas, who heads the once-dominant Fatah faction, in his power struggle with the Islamist Hamas group, which took control of the Palestinian government in March after winning elections. Olmert held his first formal meeting with Abbas on Dec. 23.

ITN Source | January 16, 2007

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