Israel is using war in Iraq as a smokescreen to increase its attacks on Palestinians, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said, Egypt's official news agency MENA reported.
Mubarak said after a telephone conversation on Friday night with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat that the Israelis were "exploiting" world attention on the war in Iraq to carry out attacks in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The two men denounced what they called "acts of violence and aggression carried out by the Israeli forces against Palestinians in the occupied territories, exploiting the fact that the rest of the world is preoccupied by the war against Iraq", MENA said.
They agreed on "the necessity of immediate action to support Palestinian demands to set out a 'roadmap' for peace after the Palestinians' commitment to reforms". (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
