EGYPT: King Abdullah II of Jordan holds talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo

At a news conference in Cairo on Wednesday (January 10), Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said that Egypt and Jordan will press for agreement on "final status" issues between Israel and the Palestinians, days before a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. His comments came on the same day that Jordan's King, Abdullah II visited Cairo to discuss regional issues with Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak. Following the meeting between the two leaders, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said that quest for a final settlement should take precedence over the Middle East peace plan known as the road map, announced by international mediators in 2003 but never fully implemented. Aboul Gheit also said that the Palestinians must deal with internal tensions that have seen open conflicts and bloodshed between the Islamist Hamas party and the secular Fatah party that it defeated in last year's parliamentary elections. "There is a feeling of anger and frustration because of what is happening in Palestine. Palestinians must deal with these internal divisions and these are threatening the Palestinian case," he said. Egypt has floated the same idea before but this time it comes two days before Rice leaves on a Middle East tour billed as another drive to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts. Also on Wednesday, Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdul Illah Al-Khatib warned of the dangers of Iraq's sectarian bloodshed spilling out beyond Iraq's borders. On Saturday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced that he planned a major security plan to restore order in Baghdad, the epicentre of violence in Iraq. U.S. President George W. Bush is due to announce later on Wednesday plans to send more troops to Iraq, most of which are expected to be deployed in Baghdad. "The sectarian strife in Iraq must be stopped, which if we let it go will continue and will not stop in Iraq but will also extend to a wider area and there will be conflicts that will have very bad consequences for all. For that reason we have to stop this sectarian strife and support the unity of the Iraqi people," said Al-Khatib. The Washington Post recently published data it said was provided by an Iraqi Health Ministry official which showed violent deaths in Iraq trebled in the second half of last year compared to the first. The reported Health Ministry figures showed violence rising during the year, with 17,310 civilians and police killed violently in the second half of the year, compared to 5,640 in the first six months of 2006. The Egyptian Foreign Minister also criticised recent U.S. military strikes in Somalia, which the United States has claimed are directed at Al-Qaeda militants. U.S. forces hit four locations in new air strikes in Somalia on Wednesday, a Somali government source said, as international criticism mounted over Washington's military intervention. The U.S. military later denied it had carried any attacks on targets in Somalia on Wednesday, contradicting a report from a Somali government source. "We have to be careful about the use of power against civilians because these are innocent people who should not face this kind of bombing. This path will cause harm rather than cooperation," said Aboul Gheit. Pentagon officials confirmed one air attack on Monday, as part of a wider offensive including Ethiopian planes. U.S. officials said the strike was aimed at an al Qaeda cell that includes suspects in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in east Africa and a 2002 attack on an Israeli-owned Kenyan hotel. Somali officials said many died in Monday's strike -- the first overt U.S. military action in Somalia since a disastrous humanitarian mission ended in 1994.

ITN Source | January 11, 2007

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