CAIRO/NABLUS, 15 November — Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak yesterday warned the United States to stop “blindly” sending military aid to Israel or risk provoking a regional race for nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, as angry Palestinians attacked a police station in Jenin to protest the arrest of a Islamic Jihad leader.
“Israel is in the process of amassing weapons, and America is supplying it with these weapons,” Mubarak said in remarks reported by the state-run Middle East News Agency (MENA.)
“For how long will countries around Israel stand with their arms folded,” Mubarak asked. “These countries can acquire nuclear, biological and chemical weapons ... This is why the (United States) must stop aiding Israel blindly.”
Mubarak, who was in Ismailiya to inaugurate a bridge over the Suez Canal, was responding to a reporter who had asked if Washington was serious about Middle East peace or just trying to win Arab support for its war on terror.
“I am for peace and security, but it would be illogical to leave this (Palestinian) question unsolved for many more years while Israel receives arms and pressures America not to supply them to countries around it,” he said.
“These countries will be able to obtain these weapons from other sources and could acquire very powerful weapons, which would amount to a threat for the entire region and for those with interests here,” he said. Egypt “is calling for peace, not for war,” he said.
“To those who in Israel doubt peace with Egypt, I say that building this bridge, which costs thousands (of dollars), is proof of our determination to follow the path of peace and development.”
Meanwhile, there was unrest in the West Bank town of Jenin with 3,000 protesters taking to the streets. The arrest of an Islamic Jihad leader and protest came just after Israel’s Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Israeli troops could withdraw from Jenin and Tulkarem if Palestinian security forces cracked down on “terrorists” in the towns.
Protesters fired guns and threw stones at the station, while three grenades hit the building, the witnesses said. It was not immediately clear if Mahmud Tawalbeh, the arrested leader of the Jenin branch of the Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Brigades, was in the building, which locals carrying flags from the spectrum of Palestinian parties tried to enter.
Police inside the building and the angry demonstrators exchanged gunfire, which shattered windows. Unarmed demonstrators pelted the police station with stones. Palestinian police arrested 20-year-old Tawalbeh in the West Bank town earlier in the day.
The Palestinian minister for international cooperation, Nabil Shaath, has said repeated Israeli strikes on Palestinian police stations in retaliation for attacks by militants on Israelis have hit the security infrastructure hard.
In occupied Jerusalem, Israelis and the Palestinians hailed yesterday a new commitment by US President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin to ending 13 months of violence and reviving Middle East peace talks.
In fresh violence, Israeli police said a small bomb exploded in a garbage bin in Jerusalem yesterday and two municipal street cleaners were slightly hurt. The army said a soldier was slightly wounded in a mortar bomb attack in Gaza.
