Business, Mideast peace on Gore-Mubarak agenda
Business, Mideast peace on Gore-Mubarak agenda
CAIRO (Agencies): U.S. Vice President Al Gore met with President Hosni Mubarak yesterday to discuss the collapsing Arab- Israeli peace process and deepening business ties with Egypt.
It was the final leg of a three-nation tour that also took him to Israel, where he apparently failed to persuade Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a more extensive troop withdrawal from the West Bank, Israeli media reports said.
The troop withdrawal was to be the center of talks in London today between U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Netanyahu.
Egypt, the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with the Jewish state, has long been a mediator in Arab-Israeli negotiations.
Gore met Mubarak at Al-Ittihadiya Palace. He also was to meet with the Egypt-U.S. Presidents' Council, a business advisory group established in 1995 to set up joint development projects and encourage American investment in Egypt.
The program is widely seen as a way to wean Egypt from U.S. aid. Egypt receives $2.1 billion a year in American aid, second only to Israel's $3 billion.
Ceremonies at the palace included the signing of a treaty calling for legal cooperation in cases involving terrorism and organized crime. The two sides also signed agreements to increase U.S. assistance to small businesses, environmental projects and educational exchange.
On his first stop of the day, Gore met with students at the Youssef el-Badri School in suburban Heliopolis. The school is taking part in a U.S.-sponsored program Gore initiated to teach children about the environment.
The vice president listened intently as students -- including one girl in an Islamic headscarf -- explained experiments to measure pollution levels and the growth of plants and trees. He got down on one knee to look at a chart being compiled by a young girl.
Gore was in Israel to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Jewish state. He also met with Arafat, who already has accepted an American proposal that links measures against Islamic militants to an Israeli withdrawal from 13 percent of the West Bank, which is home to some 1.8 million Palestinians.
In a last-minute attempt to persuade Netanyahu to agree to the U.S. initiative, Gore held a two-hour meeting with the Israeli leader early yesterday morning, Israeli media reported.
In Vatican City, Pope John Paul said yesterday he was praying for progress at Middle East peace talks in London.
"Tomorrow, May 4, there will be important meetings that aim to overcome the serious difficulties that the peace process between the state of Israel and the Palestinians is experiencing," the Pontiff said in a regular weekly address.
"I join in the feelings of those who have proposed and accepted this initiative in the profound hope that the two sides, and those who are involved in helping them, may foster a strong will to embark again on the path of dialog and peace."
The Polish Pope said that for the Palestinian and Israeli people there was only one possible route -- respect, justice and cooperation.
"Let us pray together that God illuminates those who will take part in these important meetings," he told the faithful in St Peter's Square.