The Egyptian government on Wednesday dismissed an Israeli protest against Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher’s reference to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s government as a “gang of assassins.”
Top-level diplomatic sources told the London-based daily Al Sharq Al Awsat that Tel Aviv complained to the US of what it described as antagonistic statements by Maher, characterizing them as “an escalation of the Egyptian rhetoric against Israel.”
Cairo attributed its rejection of the Israeli protest to the Sharon government’s “ugly” forms of killing and attacks against Palestinians, and held Israel responsible for the deteriorating situation in the region.
Israel said in its complaint that Maher had bluntly criticized the US for the first time by accusing Washington of simply releasing statements, without standing up to Israel for its “crimes.”
On Monday, Maher launched a scathing attack on Israel's policy of killing Palestinian fighters, saying the government of Sharon was a "gang of assassins."
"Israel's policy violates all laws and conventions," Maher told reporters in Cairo. "It is unprecedented for a government to become a gang, which assassinates people, which uses the methods of gangs in assassinating people," he said, cited by Haaretz newspaper.
"No civilized government which believes in the law can accept this behavior," he added.
He spoke after a meeting with US Charge d’affaires Reno Harnish in Cairo.
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
