EGYPT: President Hosni Mubarak meets with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz

Record ID: 696863

  • Title: EGYPT: President Hosni Mubarak meets with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz
  • Date: 14th February 2006
  • Summary: PHOTO-UP OF EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT HOSNI MUBARAK WITH EU FOREIGN POLICY CHIEF JAVIER SOLANA SEVERAL SHOTS OF THE PHOTO-UP (2 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 1st March 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Egypt
  • Country: Egypt
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA4J67WZ6W01T2NUQCJYDCYLE81
  • Story Text: The dispute over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad should not be allowed to divide Europe and the Muslim world, the European Union foreign policy chief said on Tuesday (February 14) in Egypt, the latest stage of a tour of Muslim states.
    The publication of the cartoons in Danish and other European newspapers, including one showing an image of the prophet with a bomb for a turban and another showing him wielding a knife, provoked a storm of criticism from Muslims.
    "We have constructed a very deep relationship and we would like not only to maintain that but to deepen that relationship. We should not allow the latest developments to separate us," Javier Solana told reporters in Cairo.
    Solana arrived from Saudi Arabia where he held talks with the head of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC). The OIC is lobbying for the United Nations to include language against blasphemy in the tenets of a new human rights body.
    Solana also met Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, the Sheikh of al-Azhar, one of the oldest and most revered seats of Islamic learning.
    Egypt, which is also home to the Arab League, complained to Denmark soon after the cartoons were first published in a Danish newspaper in September. But the issue only picked up steam this year and led to attacks on the Danish and Norwegian embassies.
    Though Muslims consider any portrayal of the Prophet blasphemous, many people in Europe have supported the freedom of the press to publish the cartoons.
    Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz also held talks with President Hosni Mubarak and other officials in Cairo.
    Mofaz said Mubarak had told Hamas to accept Israeli conditions for future dialogue and that Mubarak believes the Palestinian Islamist group will eventually agree.
    After talks with the Egyptian president in Cairo, Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz also repeated Israel's position that it would not deal with Hamas if it did not accept conditions that include recognising the State of Israel.
    Hamas, which has officially pledged to destroy Israel because it says it is built on Palestinian land, says it has chosen one of its members to be the next prime minister after winning a majority in parliamentary elections last month.
    It has yet to announce the make-up of a new government.
    Mofaz restated Israel's conditions for talks saying Hamas must recognise Israel, end calls for Israel's destruction, accept all agreements reached previously between Israel and the Palestinians and dismantle the Hamas "terror organisation".
    He added, in comments to reporters in English, that there was "no way that the state of Israel will speak with Hamas without all these conditions" being met.
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