Egypt warned Israel during a debate in the UN General Assembly Monday not to exploit the global consensus against terrorism to crack down on the Palestinians.
Egypt's ambassador to the United Nations, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, deplored "the thinking by some parties in Israel that there is now an opportunity to crush the Palestinian resistance to occupation."
That would be "a grave mistake of incalculable dimensions and dire consequences," he said.
Aboul Gheit was the last speaker in the first session of what was expected to be week-long debate on international terrorism.
The debate was the first of the 56th annual Assembly, which began September 11, the day kamikaze terrorists used hijacked passenger airliners as flying bombs to destroy New York's World Trade Center.
Aboul Gheit urged delegates to focus on "the political dimensions and root causes of terrorism, so that the international community will prove effective in dealing with this pernicious evil."
He said it was "regrettable and disturbing that some groups and circles seize on these commission of these criminal terrorist acts and hasten to stigmatize a particular culture or nation."
He said it was "a cause of deep sorrow" that terrorists invoked the name of Islam to justify their crimes.
Aboul Gheit also asked the Assembly to adopt a resolution endorsing an initiative of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to convene an international conference of heads of state and government on ways to combat terrorism -- UNITED NATIONS (AFP)
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