[R-G] Opposition Press Criticizes Egypt Summit Supporting Mahmoud Abbas

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

<http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/24/africa/ME-GEN-Egypt-Summit-Opposition.php>
Opposition press criticizes upcoming Egypt summit supporting Palestinian leader

The Associated Press
Sunday, June 24, 2007

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt: Egyptian state-run and opposition press clashed
Sunday over the president's decision to host a summit tomorrow with
Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian officials as a show of support for
Fatah after its recent conflict with Hamas.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak invited Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas, Jordan's King Abdullah II and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert to the meeting in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheik
last week, not long after Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in a
brutal rout of Abbas' Fatah movement.

"The cursed summit: Tomorrow Olmert leads an Arab alliance in Sharm
el-Sheik against Hamas," read a headline Sunday in the leftist
Egyptian weekly Al-Arabi.

The opposition voiced displeasure with Mubarak's decision to throw
Egypt's weight behind Fatah, saying the movement didn't deserve it.

"The corrupt regime in Egypt has to defend the more corrupt regime
(Fatah) in the occupied territories," wrote Magdi Mehna in the
independent Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm on Sunday.

Mubarak on Saturday described Hamas' takeover of Gaza as a "coup
against legitimacy" and reassured Abbas of Egypt's support. Even
before the recent turmoil, the Egyptian president had consistently
refused to meet with Hamas officials, worried about encouraging his
country's own Islamic opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood.

Mehna was also doubtful that Monday's summit would make any progress
toward achieving Palestinian-Israeli peace.

"It's in the interest of the Egyptian regime to continue its role of
mediator in the peace process even though actually there is nothing
called peace, it's an American-Israeli game with Egyptian and
Jordanian partnership," he wrote.

But Egyptian state media defended Mubarak's actions, saying he was
trying to help the Palestinian people.

"Egypt can't remain idle while the Palestinians are ruining by their
own hands the harvest of a half century of struggle," read an
editorial in the state-run Al-Ahram newspaper Sunday.

The day after Monday's summit, Mubarak will meet in Sharm with Saudi
King Abdullah in an effort to further solidify an Arab front
supporting Abbas against Hamas.

But one analyst warned the meetings might signal the beginning of a
more dangerous stage in the Middle East.

"The Sharm el-Sheik summit seems a launching and official declaration
for the establishment of an 'alliance of moderates' that would
inevitably lead, whether we like it or not, to intensify the
polarization in the region," political scientist Hassan Nafaa said
Sunday. "That might lead the 'alliance of extremists' to respond by
taking extra measures to increase its cohesion and unity."

--
Yoshie