Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, September 20, 1993 TAG: 9309200073
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT LENGTH: Medium
Speaking to reporters after a two-hour summit with Rabin, Mubarak said he expects Israel and Syria would sign a declaration of peace within months. Mubarak said he'll try to speed their negotiations.
"Every country in the area wants peace," Mubarak said with Rabin at his side. "Enough hatred and bloodshed and killing, and using our revenues for war. I can tell you most, maybe all the Arab world supports the step forward for peace."
Syrian President Hafez Assad, in an interview with an Egyptian newspaper, said he was angry that Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat negotiated an accord with Israel secretly, but said Syria would continue peace talks with Israel.
Rabin hastily arranged Sunday's summit to win support from friendly Arabs for the peace pact the Jewish state signed with the Palestine Liberation Organization in Washington a week ago. It calls for limited Palestinian self-rule in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho.
The one-day visit was Rabin's third summit with Mubarak since the Israeli leader took office in 1992. Egypt, the only Arab country that has a peace treaty with Israel, has been instrumental in mediating between Israel and other Arab states.
After their meeting, Mubarak noted Syria's desire for peace with Israel. But he would not specify what he and the Syrian president will discuss when Assad visits Egypt later this week.
"We will try and reach a solution between Israel and Syria," Mubarak said. "It is not a miracle. I don't think it will take more than a few months" for the neighboring enemies to reach agreement.
Rabin said the more pressing issue was making the fledgling pact with the Palestinians work.
"We are committed to continue our negotiations . . . to achieve a peace treaty with Syria," Rabin said. "But at this stage, I see the key issue as good implementation of the agreements that were reached with the Palestinians.
"This will be a sign of success and of the capability to solve other problems and bring about a comprehensive peace in the region."
An Israeli official who accompanied Rabin said Israel wanted Syria to agree to a massive deployment of Lebanese army troops just north of Israel's self-proclaimed "security zone" in southern Lebanon and to allow it to disarm Muslim fundamentalist guerrillas active there.
The Syrian president, meanwhile, told an Egyptian newspaper he was angry with Arafat's tactics in negotiating secretly with Israel.
"We did not endorse and we did not support," Assad told the Egyptian government-owned newspaper Al-Akhbar. "We did not oppose and we did not accept."
But Assad also confirmed that Syria will continue negotiations with Israel.
Rabin repeated his call to oil-rich Arab countries, the European Community and Japan to contribute toward implementation of the agreement and improving living conditions in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
by CNB