Mubarak: ‘Egypt Working Hard to Free Shalit’

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said that his country was working hard to secure the release of captured IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, who he called “our prisoner.” In an interview with PBS over the weekend, he noted that German representatives were also involved in the effort. However, he said that Israeli “terms and conditions” were getting in the way of progress.

“The deal or the agreement was to take care of Shalit and that Israel would release a number of prisoners, and when this is done we will hand over Schalit to the Israelis,” Mubarak told the television station. “We are still following this. Our intelligence organization is working on that, and we still have hope to conclude this on a good note.”

The Egyptian president also seemed to speak against recent US demands that Israel halt all settlement construction in the West Bank.

When asked whether such building had to stop to secure a peace agreement between Israel and the Arab world, Mubarak told the US television station, “Instead of saying stopping more settlements [sic] – and we heard this many times, now for over 10 years, and [they] never come to a stop – what I can say is that we have to consider the whole issue holistically, to negotiate on the final resolution.”

Asked whether Iran plays a destabilizing role in the region, Mubarak voiced support for opposition elements within the Islamic republic, quipping, “I say to Iran, ‘if you complain of interventions from external forces in Iran, I would say to you, don’t interfere with the home affairs of other Arab countries like Lebanon, like Hamas and others. Since you complain of this external or foreign interference, so don’t do it with other countries.'”

He also said that “the whole region should be free of all forms, all types of mass effective weapons… nuclear or not nuclear, whether Iran or Israel.”

On Tuesday, the London-based daily al-Quds al-Arabi reported that Mubarak and US President Barack Obama were set to discuss a new proposal for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

According to the report, the initiative would see Palestinians give up on the ‘right of return’ in exchange for monetary compensation.

The Palestinian state would also be demilitarized, according to the plan, and have Yerushalayim has its capital shared with Israel.

{JPost/Yair Alpert-Matzav.com Israel}