Thursday ,September 27 , 2001
Mubarak urges solution to ME
dispute to uproot terrorism
President Hosni Mubarak yesterday received Austrian Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who arrived in Egypt yesterday on a Middle East tour which also took her to Syria, Jordan and the Palestinian areas.

She told reporters after the meeting that her talks with President Mubarak dealt with the aftermath of the recent attacks on the US, indicating that Europe fully supported the US in this critical situation but also backed Arab countries.
She added that the EU heads of state agreed in their meeting on Friday to intensify contacts and cooperation with other countries to fight terrorism.
The Foreign Minister said her talks with the President also covered ways of stemming the roots of terrorism by solving regional conflicts, especially the Middle East conflict which is a fertile environment for the growth of terrorism.
During the meeting President Mubarak reiterated the same message which he promoted during his European tour in France, Germany and Italy in which he expressed his unconditional condemnation of terrorism. "The President explained his efforts over the past few years to combat terrorism," Ferrero-Waldner said, adding that Mubarak tried to warn many European countries from offering sanctuary to refugees who masterminded terrorist operations.
She said President Mubarak emphasised that the protracted conflict in the Middle East was a major source of terrorism and that unless something urgent was done about it, global stability and peace would be at stake.
The Austrian Foreign Minister endorsed this view, asserting that solving the Palestinian-Israeli dispute was part of the fight against global terror.
"From his experience as a pilot, the President believes the perpetrators of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon must be veteran pilots," she said.
President Mubarak also reiterated his call for an international anti-terror conference under the umbrella of the United Nations.
The President said support must be garnered for this meeting after the current US-led campaign against terrorism had achieved its targets. Mubarak also asked for a precise definition of terrorism to avoid confusion.
The Austrian Foreign Minister said Mubarak warned against striking innocent civilians in Afghanistan, adding that her talks in Syria and Jordan also demonstrated the need for a focused operation against the perpetrators of the attack not a wholesale strike against everybody.
She added that Arab countries were opposed to any potential action against any Arab country, but supported the fight against terrorism if the approach is meant to uproot terrorism altogether.
She expressed her support for the meeting between Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and hoped this could lead to a resumption of peace talks.
President Mubarak held a ministerial meeting later in the day to discuss the impact of the attacks on the US on the aviation and tourism industries in Egypt.
The Egyptian leader later received a phone call from Chinese President Jiang Zemin and reviewed international efforts to fight terrorism.
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