Egypt denies inviting Nasrallah to Cairo

Official says report an effort to test waters; Peres to meet Mubarak, focus on Saudi peace plan.

By HERB KEINON, JPOST.COM STAFF
Mubarak 248 88 (photo credit: AP [file])
Mubarak 248 88
(photo credit: AP [file])
Egypt on Wednesday vehemently denied a report that it had invited Hizbullah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah to the country. "No such invitation was sent," an unnamed Cairo official told the London-based A-Sharq Alawsat newspaper, adding that the report appeared to have been an effort to test the waters. The official's remarks followed a report in the Lebanese Akhbar newspaper that Nasrallah was invited to Egypt as part of Cairo's efforts to maintain calm between Lebanon's rival factions and promote better relations between Beirut and Damascus. One official who will definitely be visiting Egypt is President Shimon Peres, scheduled to meet his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak in Sharm e-Sheikh Thursday, for a meeting diplomatic sources in Jerusalem said is possible because of the current leadership vacuum in Jerusalem. "Were Prime Minister Ehud Olmert still in complete control, he would have told Peres that he would be the one meeting Mubarak," one senior diplomatic source said. The source said that prime minister-designate Tzipi Livni, who is still trying to put together a government, was in no position at this point to tell Peres not to make the trip. Peres's office announced the meeting on Monday, saying the two presidents would discuss "advancing the peace process between Israel and its neighbors, strengthening ties between Israel and Egypt, the matter of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Schalit, and a variety of other state and security issues. The two will also discuss the global financial crisis and its possible ramifications in the Middle East." Diplomatic sources in Jerusalem said the Arab Peace Initiative, which has enjoyed a bit of a revival over the last week, was likely to be a primary focus of the talks. Peres mentioned the plan during his address last month to the United Nations General Assembly, calling on Saudi King Abdullah Abdul Aziz al-Saud "to further his initiative; it may become an invitation for comprehensive peace, one to convert battlegrounds to common grounds." At a press conference Tuesday in Riyadh, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said he hoped that the next government would echo Peres's sentiments about the plan. Saying that Peres's comments about the Arab Peace Initiative were "better late than never," Faisal added "We hope the new prime minister will use the same language." The Saudi Peace plan of February 2002 was re-launched by the Arab League in March 2007 in Riyadh as the Arab Peace Initiative, and calls for a full Israeli withdrawal from all territories taken in the Six Day War, including east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, in exchange for normal ties with the Arab world. It also calls for a "just solution" to the Palestinian refugee problem in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 194, but stated that the Arab League would back any plan on the matter agreed by Israel and the Palestinians. UN General Assembly Resolution 194 from 1948 states that "refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so." Peres reportedly told Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef last week about the need to go for a regional agreement, not just a bilateral one with Syria or the Palestinians, and Labor head Ehud Barak also mentioned the plan of late. "There is definitely room to introduce a comprehensive Israeli plan to counter the Saudi plan that would be the basis for a discussion on overall regional peace," Barak said Sunday. In July 2007, the Arab League charged the foreign ministers of Jordan and Egypt to formally discuss the plan with Israel, but those talks went nowhere. Israeli diplomatic officials speculated that there were certain individuals in Saudi Arabia, the US and Israel who were pushing the plan now, at a time when the talks with both the Palestinians and Syrians seem to have stalled, and there is a leadership vacuum both in Jerusalem and Washington. According to Peres's office, Mubarak invited the president during a phone conversation they had late last month.