Meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Monday in Alexandria, Israel’s Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said that Lebanon’s Hizbullah movement “was dragging Syria into a war with Israel.” According to Haaretz, Ben-Eliezer warned that Israel would not suffer continued Hizbullah “aggression” on the northern border and stressed that Iran supported provocations carried out by the Shi'ite resistance group.
Ben-Eliezer asked Mubarak to relay Israel's demand for a reduction in violence on the northern border to the Syrians. According to the report, the israeli minister told his Egyptian host that he could not understand Syria's behavior and that its actions had caused the United States to classify it as a state that supported terror.
Palestinian issue
After the meeting on Monday Ben-Eliezer said that there was no military solution to the conflict with the Palestinians.
Ben-Eliezer said he believed the Egyptians were ready to help promote a pilot project in which the Israelis and Palestinians would attempt to reduce the level of violence in a defined area of the territories.
If the plan worked, he said, then it would be expanded to other areas. Ben-Eliezer added that the plan could first be implemented in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli minister said after the talks that they disagreed as to whether Palestinian Authority head Yasser Arafat should be sidelined. Ben-Eliezer told Israel Radio that Mubarak thought peace efforts could continue with Arafat remaining in place as head of the Palestinian Authority.
However, Ben-Eliezer, like Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, does not. "According to what we believe, Yasser Arafat doesn't work for the interest of his people. He was and still is the main problem," Ben-Eliezer told reporters at the northern Egyptian port city.
Mubarak has criticized Sharon's and US attempts to sideline Arafat, and reports from Egypt suggested he was surprised to find Ben-Eliezer more or less in agreement with Sharon's position.
In remarks published before the meeting, Mubarak cautioned that banishing the Palestinian Authority Chairman from peacemaking in the Middle East would be a "big mistake".
A senior Israeli political source said the Ben-Eliezer-Mubarak talks were consistent with Israel's effort to convince the international community, "and especially the Arab world", that Arafat must leave the political stage for diplomacy to be revived.
Egypt does not share that view. "During the talks, Mubarak will tell Ben Eliezer that Israel should stop any attempt to expel Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from the Palestinian lands," an Egyptian presidential source said before the meeting.
"President Mubarak will also make it clear that Israel should stop its military actions against the Palestinians. Otherwise, the Arab world will completely lose trust in Israel, which has claimed to achieve peace in the region," it added. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
