CAIRO, 18 April — Egypt rejected an appeal by US President George W. Bush yesterday to do more to fight “terrorism” in the Middle East, saying Israel must first end its military occupation of Palestinian land. “An appeal (to stop terror) must be addressed first to Israel,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher told a press conference after meeting here with US Secretary of State Colin Powell and Jordan’s top diplomat, Marwan Moasher.
The Egyptian minister was reacting to a speech by Bush at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington where the president for the first time explicitly demanded action against anti-Israeli attacks from Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
“The Egyptians and Jordanians and Saudis have helped in the wider war on terrorism, and they must help confront terrorism in the Middle East. All parties have a responsibility to stop funding or inciting terror,” he said.
“And all parties must say clearly that a murderer is not a martyr; he or she is just a murderer,” the US leader said in a clear reference to Palestinian bombers.
Bush also renewed his demands that “the Palestinian Authority must act — must act — on its words of condemnation against terror (and) Israel must continue its withdrawals” from re-occupied Palestinian cities and towns.
Bush vowed to pursue his “campaign against terror” — especially action against an “axis of evil” in which he lumped Iran, Iraq and North Korea. He downplayed Secretary of State Colin Powell’s inability to secure an elusive cease-fire during his 10-day trip to the Middle East. “He returns home having made progress toward peace. We’re confronting hatred that is centuries old, disputes that have lingered for decades. But I want you to know, I will continue to lead toward a vision of peace,” he said.
Without naming Baghdad or Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, whom he has pledged to oust, Bush vowed action against “a small number of outlaw regimes” armed with chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons or seeking to acquire them even as they are “cultivating” links to terrorist groups.
“In their threat to peace, in their mad ambitions, in their destructive potential, and in the oppression of their own people, these regimes constitute an axis of evil and the world must confront them,” he declared to cheers and applause.
A mid-March Middle East tour by Vice President Dick Cheney — planned with an eye on securing regional backing for ousting Saddam Hussein — was instead dominated by Arab worries about US support for Israel. The president’s recent public statements have focused more on his efforts to end violence between Israelis and Palestinians than on drumming up support for action against Saddam Hussein.
