Mubarak, Tenet discuss Mid East ceasefire and Iraqi issue

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Feb 16 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak met here Saturday with George Tenet, chief of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), to discuss a plan for a Middle East ceasefire and the question of Iraq, Egyptian presidential sources said.

Neither party issued any statements after the 75-minute-long meeting. Also attending was U.S. ambassador to Cairo, David Welch according to a report by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Egypt's state-run MENA news agency reported that the visit was part of a tour of the Middle East. No other details on Tenet's itinerary were available from either Egyptian presidential sources or from the U.S. embassy.

Egypt, a key U.S. ally in the region, has asked the Bush administration to pressure Israel to stop its "aggression" against the Palestinians and to resist Israeli hawkish premiere Ariel Sharon's from sidelining Palestinian president Yasser Arafat.

In an interview with the Al Jazeera satellite channel Friday, Palestinian Minister of International Cooperation Nabil Shaath welcomed Tenet's visit. However, he was unable to confirm whether the CIA chief would visit Palestinian territories or meet with Palestinian officials.

"Tenet was never far from understanding the Palestinian people and its suffering," Shaath said.

"He is the author of the memorandum stipulating a ceasefire, which Israel has never applied," the minister said.

Meanwhile, news agencies reported that Mubarak is scheduled to visit the United States March 2-6 for talks with senior U.S. officials on the Middle East crisis, Egypt's embassy in Washington said.

Mubarak is to arrive in Washington on March 2 and meet with U.S. President George W. Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell and some congressional leaders, the embassy said in a statement.

"While in Washington, the president plans ... to discuss bilateral relations between Egypt and the United States as well as various regional and international issues of common interest," the statement added. Mubarak is to leave the United States on March 6, it said.

Egyptian presidential sources said last week that Mubarak hoped to travel to the United States before the end of March but no dates had been set. The embassy announcement came as Egyptian sources said earlier in Cairo that Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher would travel to the United States at the beginning of March to prepare for Mubarak's visit.

In addition to the Middle East, Mubarak's talks are expected to cover Egypt's economic woes and may follow up on talks about a bilateral free trade agreement, a U.S. official said.

Mubarak and Bush have kept constant contacts on the deteriorating Mideast situation, with both talking over the phone three times since the beginning of this year, reported Chinese News Agency Xinhua.

During the latest phone conversation on Tuesday, Mubarak and Bush discussed "ways to defuse the Palestinian-Israeli tension and help resume peace talks," an Egyptian presidential source told Xinhua.

Earlier this week, a spokesman of the U.S. Embassy here announced that Vice-President Dick Cheney will visit Egypt next month to discuss with Egyptian officials anti-terror and Mideast issues.

Egypt is part of Cheney's first overseas tour, since the September 11 terror attacks in the United States. Also included are Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Israel, Turkey and Britain.

During the visits, Cheney will deliver messages to the leaders of these countries on the U.S. commitment to combating terror, Bush said earlier.

Tenet last visited Egypt in June 2001, during a mission brokering a ceasefire deal between Israel and the Palestinians that never took hold on the ground.

During his mission, he proposed a mechanism for implementing a ceasefire, after which the Mitchell plan -- a blueprint to end the now 16-month-old crisis -- could be set in motion.

But the two plans have yet to be applied. Eight months since Tenet's last visit to the region there has been an escalating cycle of violence.

 

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