Military

DATE=10/21/00

TYPE=INTERVIEW

TITLE=Osman Q&A Arab Summit (L-only)

NUMBER=2-268255

BYLINE=Scott Bobb

DATELINE=Cairo

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The Arab Emergency Summit being held in Cairo this weekend has stopped short of calling for breaking ties with Israel but has expressed outrage at what the Arab countries call the violence directed against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has blamed Israel for bringing the peace process to a standstill but has said Arabs will not abandon the path of negotiations. VOA Correspondent Scott Bobb, covering the summit in Cairo, interviewed Egyptian government spokesman Nabil Osman on 10-21-2000 at 10:00AM,EDT. The audio tape has come into the "bubble."

TEXT:

Osman: When you have 22 Arab countries convening at this level, there will be a wide ranging discussion of the issues, causes, motives, what can be done, and etc. And of course the entire Arab public opinion is awaiting anxiously to see how the leaders will cope with the situation. Its too early to speculate what will come out of this summit but I am sure that the basic principles, which have governed in the past, and still govern at present the Arab strategic policies, will be confirmed. And full support for the Palesinians, especially in the territories, will be offered and will be consolidated. But it is a chance, it is a forum from which the world will know where the Arabs stand on the principles, details might not count now, but the principles that govern our actions today (Saturday) and tomorrow (Sunday). And we expect full support for the Palestinians while they are facing these ferocious methods taken by Israel. The summit which was held in Sharm Al Sheikh was an attempt to defuse the situation, to contain the bloodshed, to give the Israelis and the Palestinians the chance to put an end to the violence instead of actually pre-occupying this summit with such measures.

Bobb: Some of the speakers have called for breaking relations, others are calling for a "Jihad" (holy war), do you think this summit will reach those kinds of conclusions?

Osman: As I said, lets not speculate because there is already a draft declaration which has been prepared by the ministers of foreign affairs from the 22 countries. And this draft will be at the disposal of the leaders for their perusal, they have to examine it, and eventually we will know which measures they will take. But on the other hand, I think President Mubarak, in a couple of interviews in the past few days, referred to this particular issue, emphasizing that withdrawl of an ambassador (from Israel), or severing relations (with Israel) never served a purpose. So there are different schools of thinking, and these schools of thinking now are at work and we will see what will come out from the brainstorming between the leaders.

Bobb: Also there have been calls for an end to the conflict with Iraq, which is not among the subjects you mentioned, do you see this entering (the talks)?

Osman: This summit is solely dedicated to the peace process and to the other issue, regular rotation of convening the Arab summit, no other issues will be discussed. But I am sure that whenever the Arabs meet in a regular fashion they will have the chance to solve many of the problems that have besieged the Arab world in the past. But this summit is for these two issues and no others.

Bobb: Any final thoughts?

Osman: The peace process is going through a very delicate stage. The excessive use of force by Israel against stone throwing Palestinian children has actually triggered feelings around the world and yesterday the United Nations General Assembly condemned the Israeli actions and called for Israel to act with restraint. In Geneva as well the Committee for Human Life issued something in the same vein. What we have seen unfolding in the territories, on television screens, is detrimental to the peace process because it affects negatively the mutual trust that is the basic element of the credibility of the peace process. I am sure the Israeli image in the Arab world has suffered tremendously. And I am not in a position to apportion blame because it is very easy to discern where the blame should fall. So they (Israelis) have to do a lot to regain credibility vis a vis the peace process because they have to take into account that there is an Arab public opinion from the oceans to the gulf which has been watching, which has been monitoring, and which has been negatively affected by Israeli military forces committed in the territories.

NEB/SB/PLM